Covid-19 Series: Long term care in the UK

Chrissy Bishop

About a quarter of Covid-19 deaths in the United Kingdom have occurred in care homes. Whilst a steady decline in hospital deaths is a sign of recovery and control for most of the population, Covid-19 remains rife in care facilities across the UK. Unsurprisingly, Covid-19 is disproportionately affecting members of society that are already frail and vulnerable to infection. Though the heavy burden of Covid-19 on care homes is not unique to the UK, care homes in South Korea and Hong Kong seemed to avoid mass deaths. What went wrong in UK care homes? And will Covid-19 be the catalyst to much needed improvements in long-term care standards?

The tragedy of Covid-19 has brought the need for social care reform to the top of the political agenda. This short report highlights the significant impact of poor staffing practices, insufficient supplies and inadequate infection control, which have likely contributed to high mortality rates seen in care homes. Our findings highlight a major need for investment in the social care workforce, where temporary contracts and multiple workplaces for staff have hindered infection control during the outbreak. In the long-term the solution may not be to better equip care homes, but to fundamentally reform how and where we care for older people.

Read the report

Chrissy is an Associate in the Health Policy and Clinical Evidence team. Her areas of expertise are epidemiology and biostatistics, longitudinal data analysis and health systems. Chrissy worked as a Senior Occupational Therapist in the NHS and Operations Manager for a private health care company before joining the Health Policy and Clinical Evidence team.