Care homes have seen a rise in deaths that have nothing to do with coronavirus as hospitals fail to take in residents as patients.

HC One, the UK's biggest care home provider, said the death rate among its 17,500 residents was around three times last year's, but only half those additional deaths were directly linked to Covid-19.

Sir David Behan, the chairman and a former chief executive of the Care Quality Commission (CQC), said it had lost an average of 20 residents per day in April last year but that, over the two weeks to April 24 this year, that number had risen to "between 60 and 70 a day".

He said: "About one third of those deaths, in our assessment, are Covid-19 deaths – so there are other deaths in there.

"We've got an elevated rate of deaths, and in part this is due to the fact that our transfers of people from care homes into hospitals is down from what it has been in previous years."