Is Matt Hancock right to take credit for falling death rates?
BMJ 2019; 366 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l5676 (Published 24 September 2019) Cite this as: BMJ 2019;366:l5676
- Elisabeth Mahase
- The BMJ
Earlier this month England’s health and social care secretary, Matt Hancock, tweeted about some “terrific news”—death rates were at their lowest level since records began, which he claimed was the result of record investment in the NHS and government policies.1
As part of its new Fact Check series The BMJ looks at the accuracy of the claim.
What was the claim?
Hancock’s tweet linked to Office for National Statistics quarterly data on mortality in England for April to June 2019.2 He wrote, “Terrific news: UK mortality rates down to their lowest level since records began. Yet more evidence that our record NHS investment, prevention agenda and NHS long term plan are yielding real results for people’s health across the country.”
What do the ONS figures show?
In April to June this year the age standardised mortality was 886 deaths per 100 000 population, which ONS said was statistically significantly lower than in the second quarter in …
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