EP.FRI.422 Over 100,000 COVID-19 deaths calls for a radical reform of health and care system in the UK

Abstract

AimWith over 100,000 deaths due to COVID 19 and still counting, is it a wake-up call to overhaul our health and care system.MethodsReview of NHS England, Office of National Statistics (ONS) and Public Health England (PHE) data to determine where the deaths occurred and what role did the primary care, secondary care, play in delivering the service.ResultsThe data shows that it took 40 weeks to get to the first 50,000 deaths and just another 10 weeks to add another 50,000 deaths. Among the OECD UK ranked number 1 for deaths due to COVID 19. 69.9% of deaths occurred in hospitals, 24.1% in care homes, while 4.9% occurred at homes. The primary care effectively remained shut for face to face consultation, effectively leaving people to manage themselves at home on their own or reach A & E when things got worse. The hospitals where overwhelmed and coped by shutting out all elective work and converting normal wards to COVID wards and that is where the maximum deaths occurred. There were over 80000 excess deaths above the five-year average.ConclusionWe may have been underprepared for the first wave but had the PPE and plans to battle the second wave yet we had the highest mortality in Europe. Is it a price we paid for our disjointed health and care system. There is a need for radical changes to prepare for future disasters.