Public spending cuts are linked to 120 000 excess deaths in England, study suggests

Cuts to public spending on healthcare and social care are linked to around 120 000 excess deaths from 2010 to 2017, researchers have found. In a paper published in BMJ Open, they said that spending constraints had produce a substantial mortality gap in England.1

The study found that deaths in England fell by an average of 0.77% a year from 2001 to 2010 but then rose by an average of 0.87% a year from 2011 to 2014.

From 2010 to 2014 the NHS in England had a real terms annual increase in government funding of …