06.06.16
One-third of deaths in the UK preventable
Over one third of deaths of people aged under-75 in the UK in 2013 could have been prevented by better medical care, according to the latest figures from the EU.
The latest eurostat figures show that 63,442 deaths, or 34.2% of all deaths, were potentially avoidable “if there had been timely and effective health care in place”.
The UK is ranked 16th out of 28 for preventable deaths, and above the EU average of 33.7%.
Across the EU, the most common cause of death was heart attacks (32%), followed by strokes (16%), colorectal cancers (12%), breast cancers (9%), hypertensive diseases (5%) and pneumonia (4%).
Professor Karol Sikora, former chief of the World Health Organisation cancer programme, told the Daily Telegraph: “Access to your GP, prompt access to hospitals for tests like CT scans – these are things we just don’t do well enough compared to other Western European Countries.
“If you have a symptom of something that might be cancer, on the Continent it gets investigated in a week. Here it can take months.”
Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association, said: "These figures give further evidence to the crisis in the NHS. These statistics are indicative of a failing and underfunded service. Every day we hear the stories of patients calling our helpline expressing their frustration at the problems occurring in the NHS. Patients and their relatives are fed up with facing endless delays due to capacity issues.
“These are not just statistics, these are people’s lives. For years we have seen patients bearing the brunt of the NHS cuts and we are now seeing the true devastation of the NHS reforms. Waiting times for treatment and operations, test results, access to treatments and medicines have all been affected. The evidence is all stacking up. We urge the Department of Health to ensure that the NHS is properly resourced and managed so that it can provide the care that patients need and deserve.”
A Department of Health spokesperson said that life expectancy was “at a record high” and that public health campaigns such as One You were the most important factors in reducing the number of avoidable deaths, which they said had fallen by 6.5% since 2010.
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