NHS accused of 17,000 unnecessary deaths

NHS accused of 17,000 unnecessary deaths

Poor performance of the NHS is causing 17,157 unnecessary deaths each year, it has been claimed.

The TaxPayers' Alliance compared the number of people with treatable illnesses who died prematurely in five European countries and found that the NHS performs worse than Spain, France, the Netherlands and Germany.

It said that if the NHS had achieved the average "mortality amenable to healthcare" measure of the other four countries, 17,157 fewer deaths would have occurred in 2004 - the most recent year for which data is available.

The report claimed that this is equivalent to over five times the total number of deaths in road accidents and over two and a half times the number of deaths related to alcohol in 2004.

It also accused the government of wasting money, stating that improvements in mortality rates have been made at almost exactly the same rate throughout the Thatcher, Major and Blair governments, despite huge increases in spending since 1999.

It said that if NHS spending had continued to increase relative to European peers at its pre-1999 rate, £34.3bn less would have been spent between 1999 and 2004.

Matthew Sinclair, author of the report and a policy analyst at the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "Thousands are dying every year thanks to Britain's health service not delivering the standards people expect and receive in other European countries. Billions of pounds have been thrown at the NHS but the additional spending has made no discernable difference to the long-term pattern of falling mortality."

A spokesperson for the Department of Health said: "The vascular screening programme, currently being developed, will extend to a far broader section of the population the kinds of wellbeing tests which private insurance patients have access to. It is expected to prevent early deaths, reduce long-term ill health associated with these diseases and identify risk factors to allow patients to make necessary lifestyle changes. Introduction is expected to begin in 2008 or early 2009."

The Health Insurance Magazine : 23 January 2008