After years of Tory rule and harsh austerity measures the UK is on its knees. The Red Cross called the NHS was facing a “humanitarian crisis,” and waiting times are now at the highest levels recorded.
Drastic cuts to the social care fund has left local authorities barely able to provide basic care to elderly people in the UK. Instead of being treated at home, elderly and frail people are clogging up hospitals A & E departments for relatively minor medical problems.
Now it has been reported that OAPs’ life expectancy is 26 days less for 65-year-olds and will leave thirty thousand dead. This is the highest increase in mortality rates in thirty years. For those even older, 75-years-old, a huge 40 days has been wiped from their lives. It must be a wake-up call to the Government that cuts kill and providing decent public services is essential to maintain a fair, equal and healthy society for all.
The study conducted by Oxford University and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine says life expectancy for 65-year-olds decreased by 26 days between 2013 and 2015, during the height of austerity Britain.
Researchers found 30,515 of the deaths could not be explained by “natural fluctuations” and ruled out weather, flu and data errors. This figure brings shame on the UK Government who and more money must be pledged to the public sector, to ensure that these numbers of deaths are slashed in the coming years.
Labour’s social care spokeswoman Barbara Keeley said: “The Tories have created a crisis in social care.”
A Health Department spokesman said: “Every year there is significant variation in excess deaths. In the year following this study they fell by nearly 20,000.”
Oxford University’s Prof Danny Dorling said: “It may sound obvious that more elderly people will have died earlier as a result of cutbacks, but to date the number of deaths has not been estimated and the government have not admitted responsibility.”
