Missing data on NHS staff Covid deaths in Wales

Prof Fu-Meng Khaw, Public Health Wales' executive medical director, says there was "significant element of missing data" relating to health worker Covid deaths

There was missing data on the number of key health and social care workers who died during the first wave of the Covid pandemic, Public Health Wales (PHW) has admitted.

More than a thousand Covid death records were missing information on whether that person had been a key worker or not, PHW's Prof Fu-Meng Khaw told the UK Covid Inquiry.

Prof Khaw also described a "critical gap" in the data available on how Covid had affected ethnic minorities.

PHW relied on software which identified and classified ethnicity based on names - which the inquiry heard "had limitations".

In April 2020, PHW put in place a rapid surveillance reporting tool to gather information on Covid deaths sooner than official death registrations take to compile.

This enabled those managing the pandemic to get daily updates and respond to change as it developed.

An electronic reporting form was set up for health boards to complete after each Covid death, including information on whether they were a key worker or not.

But Prof Khaw said there was a "significant element of missing data" on key NHS and social care workers who had died of Covid.

"Throughout the pandemic it was clear there were elements of the form which were not as well complete as they might be. There was missing information," he told the inquiry.

"For example, in the 6,514 deaths registered throughout the life of this form, there were over a thousand elements of missing data in the question of key worker status."

Prof Khaw said about 17% of data was missing. From the responses they had received in all, the deaths of 36 healthcare workers were recorded – about 0.6% of all deaths.

ONS has since estimated that there were 123 deaths involving Covid of NHS and social care workers in Wales.

'Critical gap' on ethnic minority data

Prof Khaw was also questioned about the lack of data on ethnic minorities, who had been disproportionately impacted by Covid.

Ethnicity data was not routinely captured and so PHW relied instead on a software tool which identified and classified ethnicity based on names.

The inquiry heard that this software had a habit of underestimating the black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) population.

"Clearly at the time, there wasn’t much else," said Prof Khaw.

Prof Khaw admitted that no other tools were used to understand ethnic minority disparities and there was a “critical gap” in the data.

“Any investigation on disparities for ethnic minority groups relies on good quality data and we didn’t have access to data around ethnicity".

He said it limited the ability "to undertake more robust investigations around ethnic disparity".