Winter deaths last winter were highest since 1999

The Office for National Statistics also reported that in the first six weeks of 2015 just over 82,000 deaths were recorded, which is 23% higher than the average from the previous five years. Most of these deaths involved people over the age of 75.

The influenza virus was a major cause, due to the failure of the vaccination programme, when the wrong type of vaccine was used for the particular strain of influenza. Another cause is due to the fact that people cannot afford to heat their homes due to the greed of the energy companies who are making billions in profits. I am aware that younger people cannot afford to pay energy bills also but older people are more susceptible to hypothermia due to their lack of mobility. A further cause is the fact that this government has issued a directive to those working in the health sector to concentrate resources on treating people who are "economically viable" which does not include older people, despite the fact that most of these older people will have spent a lifetime working and paying taxes and national insurance contributions. Indeed, many are still paying income tax at 20% on their pensions.

Can you imagine the outrage if there was such a dramatic increase in deaths among any other sector of our rapidly increasing population?

Again, I note from a report in the Bolton News of Saturday, November 28, 2015, that Yasmin Quereshi, MP for Bolton North, asked members of the Department of Health what steps had been taken to encourage the implementation of improvement interventions relating to chronic kidney disease since April 2015.

Did you know that a large number of patients with chronic kidney disease are not even given this information and are unaware of the fact that they have this condition.

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