This story was first published in digitalhealth.net
Significant ‘jump’ in mortality rates, experts warn
England and Wales have seen a large jump in the number of deaths per year, the biggest in a generation, a public health expert has warned.
Professor Dominic Harrison, advisor to Public Health England (PHE) has claimed that the increase in deaths should act as a ‘strong warning light’ and suggests local authority social care budget cuts could be partially to blame.
PHE has maintained it is monitoring the data and that the rise could also be due to the combination of a particularly bad strain of flu and an ineffective vaccine.
Harrison’s analysis cites figures from the ‘Health Service Journal’, which shows a 5.6 per cent rise in the number of deaths in England and Wales since 2015, the biggest increase since the 1960s. Although the figures are provisional, experts say more measures need to be in place to identify the reasons behind the spike.
Harrison proposes that ‘something is making the population more vulnerable to death’, adding winter infection and a rise in the elderly cannot fully explain the increase.
He said: "One of the things this data might be telling us is that that it is just not possible for the health and social care system to contain costs, improve quality, reduce inequality and improve outcomes within such a rapidly diminishing resource envelope."
David Buck, senior fellow in public health at the King's Fund, agreed that more needs to be done to examine the spike. He said: "Public Health England, as a guardian of the nation's healthcare needs to get behind this and investigate more thoroughly."
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has confirmed that final figures, containing more accurate information regarding the trends in annual deaths will be published in July.
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