How Covid-19 changed the way we die in England and Wales | Death and dying

When Marilyn Vegrez was told that a newly diagnosed cancer was not a processor, she said she wanted to return home to die. “She was her family mother, grabbed everything together, and wanted to have her family around her,” said Nil Andrews.
During the next few weeks, Marilyn died in January 2022 at the age Mary Curie, The End of Life Charity.
She was suffering from a lot of pain, but she had all the love and care she could hope for. Andrews said: “Our presence there, and her hand, in her house surrounded by the people and the things she loved, brought her comfort.”
Marilyn was one of the increasing number of people who were dying at home instead of hospital. The percentage of people in England Wales, who died at home by 5.3 percentage points, rose between 2015 and 2024, while the percentage that died in the hospital decreased by 4.6 points, according to the data provided by the National Statistical Office.
The bullish trend increased during the Covid-19s. In 2019, 24.4 % of deaths were at home. By 2022, it rose to 28.7 %. The percentage has remained above 28 % since then.
“There was a great stumbling block during the epidemic, and the numbers did not return to prenatal levels,” said Sam Rockon, Executive Director of Research and Politics at Mary Curie. “I made a change that was already happening.”
The epidemic brought many people to face with death. Between March 2020 and May 5, 2023, when The World Health Organization announced the end For global health emergency, approximately 227,000 people died in the UK with the inclusion of Covid-19 as one of the reasons for their death certificate. The worst day was on January 19, 2021, when 1490 people died.
But it was not just the size of death. Covid restrictions mean large numbers of people who died without their loved ones. People said that goodbye to mothers, parents, husbands, wives and others through video calls on the devices that are run by nursing staff covered in personal protection equipment.
Prevent people from watching the bodies of their loved ones, or carrying out important rituals in some religions such as washing or removing body clothes.
The assembly was suspended to mourning and exchanging memories in the funerals and waking up. The few relatives who were allowed to attend a funeral were prevented from hugging, or even sitting next to each other. Even the king was not exempt. Queen Elizabeth, wears the black face mask, She sat alone at her husband’s funeral From 73 years in April 2021.
The epidemic forced many people to face death. “We have faced the fact that there are some things in the world that we cannot control,” said Kate Woodhurb of the Center for Death and Society at Bath University.
“In Western countries, we assume that we will reach the seventies, eighties and nineties. We almost believed that death can be controlled, but it cannot.” We cannot treat everything, and the disease kills people. “
Many people thought more deeply in deaths, and what might be “good” or “bad” death. A 2021 Yougov Survey I found that one of every four adults said that the epidemic had affected how to see death, as most of those say they were more worried about the loss of their loved ones, and almost half of them said they were thinking of death more.
There was A “remarkable shift” in people who make or update the commandmentsAccording to the Association of Law. I mentioned the funeral managers after birth Increased interest in unconventional celebrations As a celebration of a person’s life. The percentage of “burning direct bodies” that do not exist 3 % of all funerals in 2019 to 20 % in 2023.
However, Laura Davis, who runs Good death project at Cambridge University“People still lack confidence and vocabulary to speak with their families about their desires at the end of life and understand their options.”
According to Marie Corrie Roiston, surveys showed that if I asked people about the place they prefer death, about 56 % choose the house and only 6 % express the hospital’s preference. But in 2024, ONS figures showed that about 43 % of deaths occurred in hospitals.
“Many people want to die at home instead of death at home.” Many people die in hospitals more than they choose to do so. “
Generally, people do not want to spend their last days in a crowded, busy and non -personal suite. “They want to be able to maintain dignity and self -esteem, and their loved ones surrounded them in a familiar place. These are things more easily at home.”
Research was published last month from Nuffield Trust and the Health Economy Unit However, it showed that 81 % of 11.7 billion pounds in the United Kingdom spend on the health needs of people last year of their lives went to take care of the hospital. Less than five total is spent on elementary, societal and housing care.
“People are transferred to the hospital at the end of their lives when this can be avoided with better resources for health care in society. Some people should be at all in hospitals, but we do not provide community care to keep people at home where we can,” Retiston said.
There is a special problem with care outside working hours. If someone suffers from unbearable pain in the middle of the night with no specialized support, what their families actually do is call 999 and the person ends in the hospital. By providing better than working hours, a lot of admission to the hospital can be avoided. “
He said that the total amount of financing was not the case. “We don’t need more money, we need to be better in spending.”
Certainly, Gillian Holtum could have used a better specialized help when her partner Terry Zaeer found that he had stomach cancer at the end of the stomach after his inability to see his doctor during the epidemic. Terry wanted to die at home, but Holtum had a little support in a painful and effort.
“You find yourself Googling” How do you care about someone who dies from stomach cancer. “It was a few miserable weeks and Terry was in a lot of pain.
In the end, Terry was accepted to the hospital. Holtum refused to leave him for nine days until he died on June 22, 2021, 67. “I feel I let it down,” Hultom said.
Holtum said that the last weeks of Terry between the late diagnosis and death “were brutally dealt with by their local hospital. According to Davis, the good death project, the increasing lack of confidence in NHS It may be a contributing factor in more people who want to die at home.
She said: “The effect of the epidemic experience along with pictures of people who are treated in hospital corridors may make people more eager to death.”
“People still support NHS, but confidence in the matter was beating,” said Woodthorpe.
The challenges are likely to accelerate because the demographic changes mean The need for tilted care will increase by 25 % by 2048, According to Mary Curie. The vast majority – a It is estimated 75 % -90 % The care for the end of home life is provided by unpaid care providers, and family members are usually.
After helping at home for his mother -in -law in the last weeks of her life, Neil Andrews did the same for his mother Anne, after 11 months.
He said: “Regardless of our values, beliefs, or religion, we all want to go through our dignity, with the minimum pain, and with a person you love holding your hand.” “There was a beautiful moment immediately before the death of my mother, when the night nurse opened the window to allow her to go out. Will that happen in the hospital?”