The CQC (Care Quality Commission) has today finally confirmed to bereaved families that they will release the statistics on the number of deaths in each care home across the UK, following a FOI request and campaign from Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice.
Bereaved families first made the request in January, but the Commission initially refused to release the data on commercial interests, health and safety and information received in confidence grounds.
Subsequent meetings led to the families being continually refused to be given a date for the publishing of such data until this morning when the CQC announced it would be releasing the data on July 21st, a whole six months since the initial FOI and two months after Scotland released the data.
The delay and lack of transparency has meant six months that families making decisions on whether to put their relatives into a care home this year, have done so without knowing the care home’s record on covid deaths.
Jean Adamson, who is an ex care home manager and lost her father in a care home last year, from Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, said: “There have been over 30,000 deaths from Covid-19 in care homes, and the sector needs to be transparent in order to maintain the trust of residents and their families. It is to be welcomed that the CQC have now committed to release the data on July 21st but it should never have taken this long to do so. There must be no excuses for any delay. Residents and their families have a right to know the truth.”