Testing in care homes has likely been poor to date and seems to relate to available testers, in many cases local infection control teams working for council/NHS CCG. They do not have many resources and have had their budgets severely cut over the last 10 years.
Individual councils or local health protection teams may be gathering data where confirmed cases have died but this will vary in each council area.
The CQC are notified of every care home death but this relies on info on cause of death provided accurately by the home manager. This is probably the best bet for analysing confirmed cases but systems are not set up to provide daily updates on this.
Because of the low levels of testing any figures will be the tip of the iceberg.
Stands to reason there will be many deaths in peoples own homes as well as many stay in their home with care rather than go to a care home. Many people will have advanced plans which avoid hospital admission.These will not be reported in the figures either.
Originally Posted by: Tim A