The devastating cost of Covid in our care homes has been revealed fully for the first time.The devastating cost of Covid in our care homes has been revealed fully for the first time.
The devastating cost of Covid in our care homes has been revealed fully for the first time.

Covid-19 death toll across Blackpool care homes revealed

A total of 96 people died from Covid-19 in Blackpool's care homes over the course of a year, a new report has shown.

The figure has been laid bare in a Care Quality Commission (CQC) publication, which showed nearly 7,000 facilities across the country saw at least one coronavirus death between April 10, 2020 to March 31, 2021.

The organisation said releasing the information earlier in the pandemic could have had a "serious impact on continuity of care" but it is doing so now as risks have changed.

In Blackpool, 96 care home residents died with Covid-19 during this period.

The highest number of fatalities, 33, were recorded in the three months to March 2021.

Overall, 32 individual care homes in the area reported at least one Covid-19 related death.

The data covers deaths of care home residents involving coronavirus, regardless of where the disease was contracted or where the death occurred.

Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, which represents independent care homes, said the figures must not be seen as an indication of quality.

He said: "It is important that the statistics are seen in context and that the entire system learns lessons from this data."

"I would like to pay tribute to all the frontline staff who have done a heroic job and it must not be forgotten that many of them lost their lives too."

The CQC said infection control inspections were carried out throughout the pandemic and the body praised the efforts of care home staff.

Kate Terroni, CQC’s chief inspector for adult social care, called for "consideration and respect" to be shown to care home residents, their families, and staff.

She said: "We are grateful for the time that families who lost their loved ones during the pandemic have spent meeting with us and the personal experiences they have shared.

"These discussions have helped us shape our thinking around the highly sensitive issue of publishing information on the numbers of death notifications involving Covid-19 received from individual care homes."

The following care homes in Blackpool recorded deaths in the year to the end of March:

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In Blackpool, 96 care home residents died with Covid-19 during this period.

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