Reporting our figures
Since the start of the pandemic the NHS has endeavoured to record the number of deaths from Covid-19 in hospitals. The daily tally published by NHS England makes clear that the numbers may not include all deaths that occurred in the previous day or days, because of necessary lags in the reporting process to ensure the data is validated and the family is advised. A comparable caveat applies to the data for the Barts Health group, which is updated on the Trust website every 24 hours.
A complication came to light recently through comparing NHS data with Office for National Statistics figures showing higher numbers of hospital deaths earlier in the pandemic. In common with a number of London NHS trusts we cross-checked our records, and discovered a number of cases where official death notification forms were not transcribed onto the NHS online reporting tool.
We have tightened our reporting process to prevent this discrepancy in future, and ensure that the backlog of unreported numbers (the equivalent of two or three every day) can be properly processed by the system. This adjustment will have the effect of temporarily inflating the number of “new” deaths reported to NHSE for the next few days, although the deaths occurred earlier in time. The cumulative total published on our website will remain our most accurate and up-to-date calculation of the number of inpatients in our hospitals who have died from Covid-19.