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England to revise DOWN its Covid-19 death toll by up to 10 percent after bizarre 'counting mishap':
Public Health England [(PHE)] currently counts the deaths of all people who have tested positive for Covid-19 among the coronavirus fatality total whether their death was related to the disease or not, an error which was noted in July, prompting the suspension of the daily death toll and an "urgent review" of protocol.
In other words, as many as 4,170 fatalities could be wiped off England's current Covid-19 death toll of 41,686.
According to reports in UKmedia, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Matt Hancock will bring all coronavirus fatality reporting in line with Scotland and Northern Ireland public health models, wherein a death is marked as Covid-19-related only if it occurs within 28 days of a positive test.
[...]
In England, of all deaths that occurred up to 24 July (registered up 1 August), 49,017 involved #COVID19. For the same period, @DHSCgovuk reported 41,143 COVID-19 deaths https://t.co/hKH0tTRb2W
— Office for National Statistics (ONS) (@ONS) August 4, 2020
If the system is not updated, the total of roughly 265,000 confirmed cases in England would all eventually be counted as Covid-19 fatalities regardless of the actual cause of death.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday August 09 2020, @12:02PM (5 children)
Unless, of course, something in this does have bearing. A difference not in who pays, but in how much they pay or which account the money comes from, may indeed explain this peculiar overcounting of covid cases. Notice also that you equate revenue with cost. They are not the same thing. Medical costs need not change a bit. But revenue can change a lot depending on how one presents those costs for reimbursement.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Sunday August 09 2020, @06:03PM (4 children)
You don't understand the UK system. Doctors do not get involved in billing. They provide the treatment that is required providing it is within the capabilities of the hospital. Their job is to save lives, to help those that need it, to treat those that require it. For things such as COVID, nobody even asks how much it will cost. The Government puts healthcare at a fairly high priority,
Hospitals do not issue bills for reimbursement to the government. And the government has already borrowed and invested £billions extra to pay for the additional money that is being spent to pay for the COVID-19 pandemic. Could the healthcare system be better with more investment? Of course it could; the 2021 budget forecast can be found here [ukpublicspending.co.uk].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 09 2020, @06:43PM
Khallow not understanding . . . It's an American thing. Queer Bono?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday August 09 2020, @10:44PM (2 children)
Doctors don't mop the floors either, but somehow the work gets done.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Sunday August 09 2020, @11:48PM (1 child)
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday August 10 2020, @12:02AM