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Campaign to stop excess winter deaths: update

1 reply

RowanMumsnet · 07/06/2016 10:44

Hello

You may remember our webchat with Dan Jarvis MP in which he talked about his campaign to reduce the number of excess winter deaths in the UK.

The ONS estimates that 43,900 excess winter deaths occurred in England and Wales in 2014/15. The majority occurred among those aged 75 and over, with women aged 85 and over being at particular risk. Dan Jarvis’s aim is to find out why this is happening, and to persuade local authorities and other agencies involved in the care of older people to work together to address any gaps in services.

Dan has now launched a petition asking the government to introduce a national strategy to reduce excess winter deaths - and he's asked us to draw it to your attention.

In his webchat, Dan said: 'This isn't just about additional resource, it's about the way in which we commit existing resources and better co-ordinate the work that is taking place around the country... there is good work taking place but more could be done to share best practice... There are many other countries which are much colder, but they don't have as many excess winter deaths. Iceland, for example, had half the rate of excess winter deaths over the last decade. We need to look carefully at why this is and draw lessons from it. How we provide the high standard of care for an increasingly elderly population is one of the biggest policy challenges we face in this country today.'

Do have a look and sign and share the petition if you're on board - and as ever, please let us know what you think.

Thanks
MNHQ

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Winterbiscuit · 02/07/2016 17:32

This is an excellent idea, I'm very much in favour.

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