telegraph | Excess deaths in England and Wales are currently running higher than in the main pandemic years of 2020 and 2021, figures have shown.
Throughout October, there have been an average of 1,564 extra deaths per week, compared with a weekly average of just 315 in 2020 and 1,322 in 2021.
Latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that in the week ending Oct 21, there were 1,714 excess deaths in England and Wales, of which only 469 were due to Covid - just 27 per cent of the total.
It is 16.8 per cent higher than normal. Deaths are also running higher than the five-year pre-Covid October average from 2015 to 2019, figures showed.
Health experts have warned that some of the unexplained deaths are being caused by collateral damage from the pandemic, when operations and treatments were cancelled or delayed as the health service concentrated on Covid.
The Government’s “stay at home, protect the NHS” message also left many people who needed medical treatment unwilling to bother the health service, or afraid they would catch coronavirus if they went into hospital.
The NHS is also struggling from long-term staffing issues and current shortages because of coronavirus, leading to record waits for ambulances, treatment and surgery.
Dr Charles Levinson, of the private GP service DoctorCall, which has seen a rise in patients presenting with advanced conditions, said: “What is driving the excess death crisis? In my view, delays in diagnosis/treatment now and throughout the pandemic.
“The reasons behind this are clearly up for debate. I also believe that the Government needs to be far more open on this and tell us what they are doing to solve it.”
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