On Mon, 22 Nov 2004 04:03:40 +0000, John Rumm
wrote:

Replace snake with RTA....

Replace RTA with waiting for a heart operation in the NHS...

(500 a year die from that alone - Hansard 7 May 2003 : Column 726)...

Hi,

It was given by Alan Milburn as an arbritary estimate, but a look at
what is being debated is more revealing. Essentially the Govt believes
that lower waiting times means less deaths. However in reality this
may mean more urgent cases are being deferred in order that less
urgent cases are being treated within the maximum waiting time:

--------------

Mr. Milburn: I can give the hon. Gentleman a concrete example. It is
estimated that 500 patients die every year waiting for a heart
operation in the NHS. The shorter the waiting time, the fewer people
die. That has come about precisely because of setting a target,
focusing effort and getting the good will and commitment of NHS staff.
That is why, after 40 years of rising waiting times in the NHS,
waiting times are starting to fall, with improved outcomes for
patients.


Dr. Harris: I am grateful to the Secretary of State for choosing
cardiology. He should know that the people who die while waiting for
their procedure are the urgent cases—those with critical ischaemia,
left main-stem disease or severe valvular disease. Clear evidence is
emerging that people with those urgent conditions are being forced to
wait longer. Instead of waiting for only days, they have to wait for
weeks because so many slots have been given over to less urgent cases,
the long waiters who also need to be treated but who are political
rather than clinical priorities. I can cite for the right hon.
Gentleman cardiologists up and down the country who know that their
patients are now more at risk due to his maximal waiting-time target.
Surely, it is straightforward for the right hon. Gentleman to see that
the sickest are not being treated the quickest, because his maximum
waiting time targets apply only to the least urgent cases. He must
accept that there is a distortion of clinical priorities, and the hon.
Member for Wolverhampton, South-West (Rob Marris) should realise that
one can have quality inspection and quality standards without
distorting either resource allocation or clinical priorities. That is
what we want, not the political targets imposed on hospitals.

-----------

URL:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200203/cmhansrd/vo030507/debtext/30507-14.htm#30507-14_spnew0

In any case quoting a statistic without any context is sometimes
misleading.

cheers,
Pete.