Mortality data is collected by the NHS but not routinely published.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has today said that ‘a substantial number of nurses’ have died of COVID-19 but says it is unable to provide a definitive figure.
In an interview with SkyNews earlier today, Dame Donna Kinnair was asked how many of the 140 NHS staff deaths due to COVID-19 are nurses.
She responded; “We don’t know how that breaks down as the figures are collected by the NHS and I know they are the ones that have those figures”.
“There will be a substantial number of nurses in that figure, every keyworker, whether you are a bus driver, a nurse, a doctor, that is somebody’s relative, somebody’s sister – it’s heartbreaking for all of us as keyworkers to suffer any loss”.
“That number is significant to us.”
When quizzed if the number of healthcare workers’ deaths is due to a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE), Dame Kinnair incorrectly commented that no healthcare workers from specialist COVID-19 wards or intensive care units have died of the virus.
At least 190 health and social care workers are now thought to have died of COVID-19, with 55 of these being registered nurses and 32 in acute secondary care services.
She added; “Where staff are working in units with the highest rates of infection, such as ITU, we have not seen any deaths in those units of healthcare workers; doctors, nurses, or other members.
“So, we do know it’s not in the units where they are properly protected with personal protection equipment – it is in other places they are contracting the Coronavirus.”
“Where they have got proper PPE they are not getting infected, but elsewhere they possibly are.”
