How many people have died in the Cwm Taf Health Board 'from' COVID 19 alone?

Sent by email to:
[email protected]

Dear Matthew,

Freedom of Information Request: Our Reference CTMUHB_05_20

Thank you for your request for information received on the 4 January 2021, regarding Covid Deaths. Please find the response from Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board set out below:

You asked:

How many people have died in the Cwm Taf Health Board ‘from’ COVID 19 alone? As in they died only due to COVID 19. I can see the figures that you published online, but these are deaths with COVID 19 following testing positive with an RT PCR test, so they could of died from other causes. I just want to know the exact figure from 1st February 2020 until the 31st December of people that have died due to COVID 19 and not anything else, please.

Our response:
For the date period 01/02/2020 – 31/12/2020

There have been 78 resident deaths in the Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board area, with no comorbidities.

Please note, that the source of the data used for this response is the Office of National Statistics (ONS) data Registered Deaths, supplied to us via NHS Wales Informatics Service (NWIS). As such, there will be a time lag in the reporting of deaths, as ONS data awaits the official clinical determination of death.

This is the only source of data that we have to be able to determine whether somebody died directly of Covid-19 without any co-morbidities (the figures most commonly cited in the media are the deaths within 28 days of a positive pathology test which is a different metric taken from the Welsh Patient Administrative System (WPAS) /Office of National Statistics (ONS) / Master Patient Index (MPI) systems and combined with Welsh Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) data. MPI is the Master Patient Index. It is a national system used to help multiple national and local systems update their demographics with changes from other systems. (E.g. if death is recorded in one Health Board’s WPAS system then another can be automatically updated with that change). Please note that our WPAS doesn’t accept these changes automatically like some other Health Boards.

There were unfortunately other deaths where COVID-19 was listed as a cause of death, but all of these had other causes of death listed as well and so are not applicable to this response.

We trust that this provides the information that you require. Under the terms of the Health Board’s Freedom of Information policy, individuals seeking access to recorded information held by the Health Board are entitled to request an internal review of the handling of their requests. If you would like to complain about the Health Board’s handling of your request please contact me directly at the address below. If after Internal Review you remain dissatisfied you are also entitled to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner at the following address:

• Information Commissioner’s Office – Wales
  2nd Floor, Churchill House, Churchill Way, Cardiff, CF10 2HH
• Telephone: 0330 414 6421 / Email: [email protected]
• https://ico.org.uk/

You should note, however, that the Information Commissioner would normally expect you to have exhausted our internal complaints procedures before dealing with such an application. Further guidance may be found on the Information
Commissioner’s website click here.

Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board routinely publishes details of all Freedom of Information Act requests received in its disclosure log. The Disclosure Log can be found at http://cwmtafmorgannwg.wales/foi/disclosure-log/

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any queries.

Yours sincerely

Freedom of Information Team /Tim Rhyddid Gwybodaeth

How many people have died in the Cwm Taf Health Board ‘from’ COVID 19 alone?