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Excess Mortality Caused By Austerity

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Untitled | 10:58 Tue 11th Oct 2022 | News
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https://www.gcph.co.uk/latest/news/1058_over_300_000_excess_deaths_attributed_to_uk_government_austerity_measures

academics from the glasgow centre for population health have recently published a peer-reviewed paper in the journal of epidemiology and community health which suggests that severe public spending cuts were the most likely contributory cause in 335,000 deaths between 2012 and 2019 (before covid)... life expectancy fell by 6-7% in the most deprived parts of Scotland.

How are further spending cuts defensible in the face of these human costs?
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Did these include high drug usage?
Are figures and conclusions the same for all uk or is it just Scotland?
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all uk... it's not the only paper to make this conclusion... the paper is available to view in the link if you would like to scrutinise it... many of the references are linked as well.

it is not the first peer-reviewed research to come to the conclusion that austerity has led to excess deaths between 2012 and 2019

https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/10/11/e038135

https://jech.bmj.com/content/72/5/404

the research does account for drug-related deaths yes.. they refer to two papers from 2021 and 2017 which argue that austerity has increased them
Accross the uk, to quote

Over 300,000 ‘excess’ deaths attributed to UK government austerity measures

05 October 2022

We, and others, have previously reported the profound and deeply concerning changes to mortality trends that have been observed in Scotland, and across the UK, since around 2012: a stalling in mortality improvements overall, increasing death rates among the most deprived communities, and a widening in inequalities.

In May we published a major report and animation that critically examined a range of possible contributory factors. From this assessment of the evidence, it reported that UK Government economic ‘austerity’ policies were the most likely contributory cause.

A new paper published today in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health quantifies the scale of the ‘excess’ deaths. Compared to what previous trends predicted, an additional 335,000 deaths were observed across Scotland, England & Wales between 2012 and 2019.
um scotland has its own admin
and every fule knos that the expenditure ( partly or wholly from London) per had £13000 is a thou higher than that spent in England £12000

Someone pointed this out the other day

in which case - - there must be other factors at work
crap govt, flies, cold, and probs c drink
Thanks. Cant open the link o read at work.
Am never quite sure what people mean by austerity as 8f there's a clear time of austerity and of nonausterity....what I think they mean we always seem to have had some form of austerity....
Feral haggis attacks and their outcomes are suppressed by Holyrood.

I saw it on TouTube.
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they are referring to the cuts made to public services and local government after 2012
Hmmm … got to question any study that one would expect to be carried out without bias or prejudice that finishes by making a specific political statement. One could almost be forgiven for thinking there was an agenda going on there.
"academics from the glasgow ........." - right oh!
Oh Tora, lowering the bar when it was thought impossible.
Lowering the bar just helps short people get a wee swillie.
Surely not Naomi :-)
It surprised me too, YMB. Not at all what I expected - and if you believe that you'll believe anything. :o)
ZM - what's a swillie? New one on me.
Swally - swallow - a drink.
Apologies, Rab C Nesbit made it sound like swillie.
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It's not just this paper though... if there are political causes for excess mortality then you can't expect people to ignore it...

all of the others i posted were peer-reviewed too
As PP points out, Scotland has among the highest mortality rates in the country, but enjoys a much higher rate of public spending per capita than the rest of the UK apart from Northern Ireland. So it could be argued that greater public spending leads to worse outcomes (though I'm not arguing that).

I can't be bothered to read the report, especially as it begins:

"Background: Mortality rates across the UK stopped improving in the early 2010s, largely attributable to UK Government’s ‘austerity’ policies."

That opening gambit suggests the cause of the deterioration in mortality rates has already been determined. So perhaps somebody could tell me, in precis, how did "austerity" lead to this? How does tightening public spending in an attempt to return it to a sensible level impact on the age at which people die? What were these "severe public spending cuts" that were mentioned.? From what I can see, total expenditure was £691bn in 2011-12 and £842bn in 2019-20. This is an increase of almost 22% in eight years, or 2.75% per year. How much more is the government supposed to spend and where is it to come from?
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it does have footnotes explaining where that conclusion comes from new judge... i posted some
Question Author
and government spending increased if i remember correctly due to intervention in libya... social services including mental health support and social security were cut significantly

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