Covid in Scotland: Larger care homes 'worse hit by virus deaths'

The rate of residents dying from Covid was higher in larger care homes than smaller ones, new data reveals.

Care Inspectorate figures show there were 2.1 virus deaths per 100 places in care homes with up to 20 beds.

This contrasts with 12.6 deaths per 100 places in facilities with more than 80 beds.

The watchdog's data, published after an FOI ruling, shows 59% of older people care homes reported at least one Covid-related death up to March this year.

All of Scotland's care homes are required to report the deaths of residents to the Care Inspectorate.

BBC Scotland asked for this data last year but the watchdog refused on confidentiality and public interests grounds.

The broadcaster was later given and published similar data by a Crown Office unit set up to gather information on the circumstances of all Covid deaths in care homes.

• Failure to reveal care home death data broke rules

• The full picture of Covid-linked deaths in Scotland's care homes

• What went wrong in Scotland's care homes?

The new Care Inspectorate data shows there were 9.2 deaths per 100 registered places for older people in care homes between 16 March 2020 and 31 March this year.

A spokesman for the public body said: "We know from our inspections and our experience of the pandemic that the relationship between the quality of care experienced by people in care homes and the impact of Covid is complex.

"We know that any care service can be affected by Covid and that residents of care homes were, tragically, particularly vulnerable to the virus.

"We also know that the quality of care experienced by residents did not necessarily provide an indicator of the risks in relation to the virus."

The spokesman added the data indicated there "may be relationships between a high number of deaths related to Covid and size of service and geographical location".

One of the reasons the Care Inspectorate had previously refused to release the data was the "significant impact" on the commercial prospects of the operators if it did so

The Care Inspectorate data shows care homes located in the most populated areas had higher rates of Covid-related deaths than those in more remote places.

There were 11.6 deaths per 100 places in large urban areas compared with 3.7 per 100 places in remote small towns.

The watchdog received a total of 3,774 notifications of deaths related to Covid-19 from care homes between 16 March 2020 and 31 March this year.

This includes people who died at a care home and residents who died in hospital.

'Let down'

The Care Inspectorate disclosure comes after the information commissioner ruled that National Records of Scotland (NRS) breached FOI rules by refusing to reveal how many people had died of Covid in each of the country's care homes.

NRS had failed to release the data for eight months in response to media requests.

There have been more than 10,000 Covid-related deaths in Scotland, about a third of which have been in care homes.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has previously admitted that the way more than 1,300 elderly people were discharged from hospital to care homes in the early stages of the pandemic was a mistake.

The care home industry has claimed it was "let down" at the start of the pandemic - but the Scottish government said saving lives had always been its priority.

• RULES: What are the restrictions in your area?

• LOCKDOWN: Six months that changed our lives

• CASES: Where are the latest cases in Scotland?

• WHO? The people who have died with Covid-19