Overview
In order to provide data about deaths caused by coronavirus (COVID-19) of people detained under the Mental Health Act, CQC is publishing provisional counts of deaths confirmed as coronavirus or suspected to be caused by coronavirus for people detained under the Mental Health Act, based on statutory notifications from health and adult social care providers.
The figures will be published in future as part of CQC’s COVID-19 Insight bulletin and will include:
- total count of deaths caused by coronavirus or suspected to be caused by coronavirus for people detained under the Mental Health Act in England
- total count of deaths of people detained or liable to be detained under the Mental Health Act in England
Description of the data source
CQC collects data of people detained under the Mental Health Act under Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulation 17. The intention of this regulation is that CQC is notified of the death or unauthorised absence of a person in any location who is liable to be detained under the Mental Health Act 1983 so that CQC can take follow-up action where needed.
Notifications include all deaths of people detained or liable to be detained under the Mental Health Act.
Notifications about deaths must be sent to CQC without delay. All providers must send their notifications directly to CQC.
Providers must use forms provided by CQC to make notifications under this regulation. Providers can notify CQC using the webform on the CQC Provider Portal or using the MS Word form on CQC’s website and returning this via email.
On receipt of the notification, CQC’s National Customer Service Centre staff key in the main fields from the form into internal systems and make the full form available to their inspectors. If providers submit a blank form or one that is deemed insufficiently complete, CQC will contact the provider to obtain the essential missing information.
All providers registered under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 must notify us about the deaths of people who are detained, or liable to be detained under the Mental Health Act.
In analysing the deaths notifications data, CQC analysts clean the data extracted from CQC systems, including removing records where there are duplicate notification IDs. Once analysed, checks are made on the analysis undertaken following CQC’s standard quality assurance processes.
Previously published data
CQC publishes an annual report “Monitoring the Mental Health Act” which includes annual data for notifications to CQC of deaths of people detained under the Mental Health Act.
Technical definitions
The information notified to CQC includes the date of death, place of death, and (from 24th April) whether the death was a result of confirmed or suspected coronavirus (COVID-19). The inclusion of a death in the published figures as being the result of COVID-19 is based on the statement of the service provider, which may or may not correspond to a medical diagnosis or test result or be reflected in the death certification.
There is no validation built into the quality of data on collection. Fields may be left blank or may contain information that is contradictory, and this may not be resolved at the point of publication. The published figures have been subject to a validation exercise, undertaken by CQC inspectors to identify where the cause of death was a result of confirmed or suspected coronavirus. This included if a provider has indicated in the notification that COVID-19 was the suspected or confirmed cause of death or if there is wider evidence in the notification that COVID-19may have been a factor linked to the death.
A validation exercise to remove duplicate notifications from the dataset has been completed. Duplicate notifications can occur in the dataset due to:
- Multiple notifications are submitted by different people from the same provider
- Multiple notifications are submitted by different providers for the same person (this can only be identified through a check of the individual death records)
- Further information is submitted by a provider for a death that has been reported which is not reconciled with the first report of the death
The published figures will include deaths of people detained under the Mental Health Act for all places of death where the provider has notified CQC. It also includes people who are subject to the MHA in the community and not in hospital.
Comparison with other sources of data
Deaths reported to CQC for people detained under the Mental Health Act under Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulation 17 with confirmed cause or suspected cause of death from Coronavirus will also be counted in the following national data sources:
- ONS COVID-19 deaths registered
- ONS COVID-19 death occurrence
- DHSC COVID-19 (as published on GOV.UK) for deaths in hospital were the patient has been tested for COVID-19