'Sick Man of Europe' getting better as Scots death toll falls

Published on Thursday 10 September 2009 22:11

SCOTLAND is shaking off its title as the "Sick Man of Europe" as new figures revealed the number of deaths has fallen to its lowest level for more than 30 years.

Figures published by the Register Office for Scotland showed a total of 12,770 deaths in the second quarter of this year.

This was 723 fewer than the same quarter last year – and the lowest April-June figure for "at least" 30 years, said officials.

It is second successive quarter to show a record-breaking drop. In January to March this year, 14,830 deaths were registered in Scotland, 242 fewer than in the same quarter of 2008, also the lowest in 30 years.

The figures showed that falls in the numbers of deaths from coronary heart disease and strokes were in part responsible for the drop, falling 10.7 per cent and 6.5 per cent respectively, while cancer deaths had fallen by 0.6 per cent.

The Scottish Government attributed the fall to a combination of health policy and the efforts of the NHS.

Public health minister Shona Robison said: "Little more than a decade ago, Scotland was seen as the 'Sick Man of Europe' because of our high premature death rates from heart disease, stroke and cancer.

"But today's figures show that, with determination and a lot of hard work from NHS Scotland, we are on track to meet some very ambitious targets to reduce these deaths."

Ms Robison cautioned, however, that improved treatment could only do so much and that further progress would depend on Scots take greater responsibility for leading healthier lifestyles.

"This government is taking firm action in all these areas so that our health service isn't burdened by what are often preventable illnesses," she said.

Announcing the drop yesterday, Registrar-General Duncan Macniven said: "Death rates fluctuate and we shouldn't make too much of a single quarter.

"But we've seen a reduction in the last two quarters, giving the lowest number of deaths and lowest death rate in the first half of a year for at least three decades."

Heart disease and stroke charities gave the figures a cautious welcome. Andy Carver, the British Heart Foundation Scotland's prevention and care adviser, said that health inequalities would have to be tackled to force figures down further.

Maddy Halliday, director of operations for the Stroke Association Scotland, described the figures as "really good news".

"Stroke mortality rates have been falling for some time and it's great that they are continuing to fall," she said. "The explanation in part for this, we believe, is the improving stroke care in Scotland and since the government launched its strategy for stroke in 2002 there's been improvements in stroke care."

New approach to heart disease paid healthy dividend

THE Register's figures are just the outcome that we were hoping for when we signed the GP contract in 2004.

One of its points was performance-related funding based on managing heart disease, treating high blood pressure very aggressively and giving people more drugs to fight cholesterol.

The framework has been a huge success, but given that we had such awful heart disease levels we had to do something.

Certainly it is not the be-all and end-all for treatment when tackling problems in deprived areas where life expectancy is low. But when the funding was put forward, some of the criticism it attracted was that it did not address health inequality and that it would only be the affluent who would take advantage of the tests and checks on offer.

But this evidence shows that practices in these areas have performed phenomenally.

There are still a host of medical and social issues, but the improvements are right across the board and it is making a big difference in deprived areas.

&#149 Dr Dean Marshall is chairman of the BMA's Scottish general practitioners' committee.