UK CARE HOME COVID-19 TESTING TRACKER DAILY DATA UPDATES
This analysis is conducted by T-DAB.AI (T-DAB) based on data from Person Centred Software (PCS). It allows the reader to follow the state of Covid-19 testing in care homes across England, Scotland, and Wales. The interactive dashboards allow the user to explore the story of testing across this area combined, as well as within specific regions. It will be updated regularly and expanded to include detailed data and analysis on carers in the residential setting, resident mortality, and comparison of testing rates in staff and residents
If quoting this data please note: This new research comes from T-DAB.AI and is based on data from PCS, one of the leading suppliers of near real time management information systems to the care home sector.
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Notes:
Data
The data above relates to the period from 18th March up to the latest date on the dashboard. There is no equivalent up to date information on the sector as a whole because more than half of the homes have no detailed, timely or automated data collection.
The graph in this release shows the Covid-19 testing of care receivers as a percentage of the care receivers population for which a Person Centred Software Mobile Care Monitoring (MCM) Covid-19 audit was undertaken. The dataset represents a total sample size of 32,000 care receivers from 1,200 care homes (as of 21st May 2020) across England, Wales and Scotland. Readers should be aware when using the dashboards that the sample size of number of homes in each region varies. This is due to variation in region sizes, population and demography. Geographical information is obtained from open sources with CQC and the ONS.
The data used for analysis is a sub-sample of the total 1800 care homes in the MCM system. In order for a care receiver to be included within the observational group, they must have had a Covid-19 audit form filled out in the MCM software. This data covers a minority of care homes but as many as any other provider. Given the geographic spread and size of the Person Centred Software client base, there is no reason to believe that the sample is not broadly representative of the sector.
- ‘% residents ever tested’ corresponds to the count of residents having been recorded as being tested¹ at least once since 18th March, as a proportion of all residents audited since 18th March.
- ‘% residents tested in the last 7 days’ corresponds to the number of residents recorded as being tested¹ in the 7 preceding days as a proportion of all residents audited since 18th March.
¹Residents identified as ‘being tested’ are those for which the status ‘in test’ or ‘tested – confirmed’ was recorded in their audit. The date at which either of these appears first, is taken as the date of testing. In the case where there is no record of ‘in test’, and ‘tested – confirmed’ appears first this date is used.
ONS has published data relating to deaths in care homes on 15 May and on 19 May.
Policy
The government announced on 15 April that testing will be available for all care home residents with symptoms.
The government announced on 11 May that “All symptomatic and asymptomatic care home staff and residents in England are now eligible for testing. Testing will be prioritised for care homes that look after the over 65s.”
On 15 May at the daily briefing Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Matt Hancock said: “We will test every resident and every member of staff in our elderly care homes in England between now and early June”.
