Death from a Thousand Cuts
Death from a Thousand Cuts
That is what the government has just announced in its Emergency Budget earlier this week. Yet all the available evidence shows that welfare spending is even more important. By cutting it, the government is effectively sentencing people to death.
Scientists from Oxford University have just completed an analysis into welfare spending across Europe carried out over 25 years. Their report published in the British Medical Journal this week showed that a £70 reduction in welfare spending per person is associated with a 2.8% rise in alcohol-related deaths and 1.2% rise in deaths from heart disease.
Every other similar survey proves time and again that there is a direct correlation between ill health and poverty.
You only have to go for a short journey through Belfast or any other city to prove that this is the case. Our inner city communities have high mortality rates: there are problems with dependence on legal and illegal drugs, serious and growing alcohol problems, mental health issues, crime and the consequences of an education system which has failed them.
As a direct result of these social problems people in inner city communities have lower life expectancy than those from affluent areas. It’s common to find parts of Belfast where the average life expectancy is five years lower than another community a mile down the road. For some disadvantaged groups it can be 20 or even 30 years lower
This is a scandalous state of affairs, made worse by the fact that the gap between rich and poor is now greater than it was in the Victorian age.
Most serious health professionals recognise this, and there is a growing understanding of the need to develop a “wellness” agenda and invest more heavily in addressing the social problems which cause the health problems associated with poverty.
Unfortunately the NHS is not really geared up to deliver on this – it is an “illness” rather than a “wellness” service – in fact the vast majority of hospital spending is around the last few months of a person’s life.
If we are to address this during a period of cuts, we do have to have the courage and vision to act on the evidence: there needs to be an even greater emphasis on addressing the many problems that cause early death and preventing illness rather than simply throwing all available funds at acute hospital services.
Politicians need to have the courage to act responsibly and show leadership. That means having the guts to support necessary economies in acute services – even hospital closures – and to invest more money where it will make more difference.
This week’s budget does not augur well for the future health of the nation.
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