Health Foundation mortality report: must be a “wake-up call” for Government to turnaround these “unacceptable statistics”

EMBARGO: 00.01 Tuesday 20th May

Responding to a report by The Health Foundation, which revealed that by 2023, female mortality rates in the UK were 14% higher when compared with the median of 21 other high-income countries, with male mortality rates 9% higher, Liberal Democrat Health and Social Care spokesperson Helen Morgan MP said:

“Preventing avoidable deaths and protecting the public’s health should be at the top of any Government’s priorities and to see it neglected in this way, bringing immeasurable suffering to people and their loved ones, should be a wake-up call to us all.

“The Conservatives' catastrophic mismanagement of the NHS and their savage cuts to public health support have brought us to this point but the Labour government has shown nowhere near the ambition required to repair these unacceptable statistics.

“It is not good enough for ministers to sit on their hands and watch the NHS and the opportunity to live a healthy life decay in this way. We need to see the Government step in as a matter of urgency, to reverse the cuts to the public health grant and bring an end to these devastating deaths.”

ENDS