UK child death rate among worst in western Europe, say experts

 


Powered by Guardian.co.ukThis article titled “UK child death rate among worst in western Europe, say experts” was written by Sarah Boseley, health editor, for theguardian.com on Friday 2nd May 2014 13.03 Europe/London

The UK has one of the highest death rates in western Europe among children younger than five, according to an international study whose authors express surprise at the poor figures for a country with free universal healthcare.

Almost five children die for every 1,000 born, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle has found. The UK’s rate, at 4.9, is nearly double that of Iceland, the European country with the fewest child deaths, at 2.4 per 1,000 births.

The UK has the second worst child death rate in western Europe after Malta, where there are seven deaths per 1,000 births.

Child death rates are worse in central Europe, with 6.7 deaths per 1,000 births, and eastern Europe, with 9.7. The UK rate is similar to that in Serbia and Poland.

“We were surprised by these findings because the UK has made so many significant advances in public health over the years,” said Dr Christopher Murray, the institute’s director and the study’s senior author.

“The higher than expected child death rates in the UK are a reminder to all of us that, even as we are seeing child mortality decline worldwide, countries need to examine what they are doing to make sure more children grow into adulthood.”

The figures are published online by the Lancet medical journal, whose editor, Dr Richard Horton, said politicians need to take child health more seriously.

“These figures show the significant health burden that children bear in the UK compared with their European neighbours,” he said.

“The reasons for this are likely to be complex, but undoubtedly include the poor organisation of children’s health services in the UK.

“Until our politicians begin to take the health of children – the health of the next generation of British citizens – more seriously, newborns and older children will continue to suffer and die needlessly.”

Death rates of children under five are high in the UK at almost every stage – in the first six days of life, between one month and one year old and between one year and four years old.

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29 thoughts on “UK child death rate among worst in western Europe, say experts

  1. ian says:

    Not surprised one bit,this selfish government only care about money for them not the wellbeing of its people!

  2. PAULA says:

    ENOUGH IS ENOUGH I’M PREPARED TO GET A VIGILANTE GROUP SET UP, THEY’VE MURDERED TO MANY OF US, ONE IS ONE TO MANY, BUT THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS OF US , ANYBODY SERIOUSLY INTERESTED?

  3. GEOFF REYNOLDS says:

    IT FEELS SO STRANGE, LIVING IN MY PARALLEL UNIVERSE……………

    IT’S AS THOUGH THE PEOPLE AT ONE OF THE COUNTRY, THE THRIVING METROPOLIS, HAVE ACCESS TO ANOTHER PLACE IN TIME AND SPACE AND MY FRIENDS AND I, ARE IN A PLACE THAT TIME FORGOT.

    DAVID CAMERON IS TODAY HERALDING THE UK;S RISE IN PROSPERITY AND YESTERDAY I HAD TO BUY A PACKET OF HUGGIES NAPPIES AND CUT THEM IN HALF TO MAKE DO………

    BEING DISABLED AND FORCED TO LIVE ON £32 SINCE LAST JULY IS NO MEAN FEAT, MEAN BEING THE OPERATIVE WORD!

    CUTTING NAPPIES IN HALF TO MAKE MY MISERLY BUDGET GO FURTHER IS AN EVERYDAY TASK, AS IS PREPARING MY OUT OF DATE, 3 MONTHS OUT OF DATE, PATAKS NAN BREADS WHICH I WILL DIP IN SOME GRAVY MIX, ALSO OUT OF DATE.

    LIVING ON SUCH A LOW INCOME IS JUST PUNISHMENT FOR ME SPEAKING OUT AGAINST THE SYSTEM AND THE SCUM BEHIND IT. YET I AM NOT AFRAID BECAUSE I KNOW, LIKE THE HUGE MAJORITY OUT THERE, I AM RIGHT.

    STICKS AND STONES WILL NOT BREAK MY BONES BUT INCREASE MY RESOLVE TO SQUEEZE OUT THE POISON OF A TAINTED SOCIETY.

    IT DOES NOT COME AS A SHOCK THAT THE MORTALITY RATES OF OUR CHILDREN IS STAGGERINGLY HIGH, YOU ONLY HAVE TO VIEW AREAS BEYOND LONDON TO SEE THE EFFECTS OF THE ODIOUS QUEENS WELFARE EXTRAVAGANZA ON THE POOREST.

    MOST TOWNS ARE STARTING TO RESEMBLE HOGARTH;S “GIN LANE”, AS THE QUALITY OF LIFE IS BEING SUCKED FROM ALL BUT THOSE OF AFFLUENCE………….

    THE UK IS FAST BECOMING A CESS PIT, THE CREATIVE GENIUS OF THOSE WHO PROFESS TO KNOW WHAT IS RIGHT FOR US, THE SO CALLED POLITICIANS, A GENTLEMEN’S CLUB FORMED ON THE PROCEEDS OF CRIMINAL ACTIVITY TO BOLSTER THEIR OWN POCKETS………….

    I DON’T HAVE TO WAKE UP TO THE DAILY BULLSHIT BROADCAST BY OUR TWISTED MEDIA, I LIVE IN THE REAL WORLD, THE ONE DISCRETELY HIDDEN FROM THE REST OF THE WORLD, THE SHITHOLE OF WHAT THE UK HAS FAST BECOME.

    FILL YOUR WALLETS AND KEEP ON KILLING, YOUR PROPHECY IS SOON TO BECOME SELF FULFILLING, YOU WILL FALL ON YOUR OWN SWORDS AS THE SKELETONS OF WHAT YOU CREATED, FIGHT BACK..

    I WOULD NOT FLINCH FOR ONE SECOND AS I PULLED THE TRIGGER TO BLAST YOU BASTARDS INTO OBLIVION……………….

  4. Humanity2012 says:

    Whoever I Vote For in the May 2014 Elections It will Not be the ” Conservatives ”
    or the ” Liberal Democrats ” The Con Dems have been a DISASTER

    1. PAULA says:

      THEY WILL ALL SHIT ON U, WHOEVER U VOTE FOR, OH SORRY U MIGHT BE A MILLIONAIRE!, WHO INTRODUCED ATOS?, THE LIEBOUR PARTY!

  5. Humanity2012 says:

    Nazi Nihilistic Totalitarian Degenerate ” Modern ” Britain is Not a
    Decent Place to Bring a Child into .

    My Blood Boils with Rage at the Greed Ignorance and Arrogance of
    Westminster Politicians and the Selfishness of the General Public at
    Large

    Braindead in a Trance

    1. GEOFF REYNOLDS says:

      DO NOT FEAR BECAUSE I HAVE IT ON GOOD AUTHORITY THAT WE ARE ALL CREATED EQUAL………………

      THEREFORE, IT MUST FOLLOW, THAT EVERY CHILD BORN OF WOMAN WILL HAVE THE SAME OPPORTUNITY AS PRINCE GEORGE, THE 267TH IN LINE TO THE THRONE……

      “OH MY GOD, DO SOMETHING QUICKLY, GEORGIE BOY’S DONE A POO POO”

      “CALL SOMEONE QUICKLY, WE DON’T WANT IT ON OUR HANDS”……………

      1. GEOFF REYNOLDS says:

        “SUPERMARKET JUSTICE”

        ……….SAME OLD FACES ON THE LOCAL TRIBUNALS, DAY IN DAY OUT…

        THEY MUST BE MAKING A SMALL FORTUNE FROM THE MISERY THEY DEAL OUT EVERYDAY.

        WHERE I LIVE IN SCARBOROUGH YOU WOULD HONESTLY THINK THE SAME MAGISTRATES AND RETIRED OLD DOCTORS LIVED IN THE COURTHOUSE……………………

        WE WERE ALWAYS ASSURED OF A FAIR TRIAL BUT THAT WENT OUT OF THE WINDOW A LONG TIME AGO.

        I WAS TRIED BY THE SAME JUDGE WITHIN A MATTER OF A FEW WEEKS FOR DIFFERENT BENEFITS, YET WHEN I MADE IT CLEAR THAT I WOULD NOT BE TRIED BY HIM, HE SOUGHT TO OVERRULE ME………

        THEY MIGHT THINK THEY ARE A LAW TO THEMSELVES BUT I WILL HAVE THE LAST LAUGH BECAUSE THEY ARE DENYING A FAIR TRIAL, DEPRIVING ME OF MY HUMAN RIGHTS TO ACCESS JUSTICE THROUGH AN AWARD OF LEGAL AID AND PERSISTING IN BREACHING EQUALITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS ARTICLES……………………

        JUST WAIT TILL I TAKE ATOS TO COURT FOR WRITING A DISABILITY DENIAL DOCUMENT, MY MEDICAL REPORT, IT’S SO FULL OF MISTAKES YOU WOULD HAVE THOUGHT A SCHOOLKID COMPILED IT.

        …………AND IF I AM BLOCKED HERE I WILL PROGRESS TO THE EUROPEAN COURTS.

        YOU SHOULD NOT SEEK JUSTICE, IT SHOULD BE AVAILABLE, BUT IN THE UK YOU ARE HAVING EVERY ACCESS BLOCKED AT EVERY LEVEL.

        NO WONDER CAMERON WANTS OUT OF THE EU, IMAGINE THE MAYHEM HE COULD CAUSE THEN?

  6. Chrissie says:

    My heart goes out to you all. We must stay alive. The people at the top are content to let us expire quietly, and many have not been so quiet in their desperation. We are witnesses. We will have our day and our say. They can’t silence us all through poverty and despair. Many of us were fortunate enough to have the help of the NHS in our formative years, and had a good start. The Tories hate us because we are strong, even though many of us were born, or have developed health challenges along the way. If we’d had no free medical help and welfare many of us would have died long ago, but survived to live productive lives and contributed to society in our owns ways. This they know, which is why they are trying to destroy free medical care, and what was one of the best welfare systems in the world. I get upset when people blame immigrants. Who could blame them for trying to get to a country that got it right for the working classes for so many years. Thatcher started the rot, and Blair lost his socialist calling, but I believe that if enough working-class people push for a more democratic candidate selection process as it used to be, they could be powerful again. We the people need to push for it. Please, don’t let U.K.I.P. in. They will be far, far worse.

    1. ianbrunsdon469@btinternet.com says:

      We need UKIP Chrissie to shake up the other 3.even if they are crap it cant be any worse and they will open the doorway for others.

      1. GEOFF REYNOLDS says:

        Patton’s public webpage or the Israeli propaganda machine, the BBC are doing a thoroughly good job of serving their masters voice………..
        This morning they seek to threaten jobsearchers with mandatory inclusion in the slave trade and herald the outcome of findings from an asthma study unit into fatalities of sufferers……………..

        Yet enough people, more than required to fill a football stadium, have died as a result of being found fit for work, and nothing is said……..

        Can it be that all our news is being doctored, or are the deaths of forty thousand plus, just a blip on the radar that can easily be concealed?

        There is a public outrage when a ferry disaster occurs, taking the lives of hundreds.
        We are still looking for a little girl who went missing in portugal…….

        But what of the forty thousand who have died at the governments behest?

        Why no investigation, why no charges against the DWP for corporate manslaughter?

        It beggars belief that the sanctioned assassination of the weakest is allowed to continue unchecked.

        The UNUM corporation of America has it’s slimy tentacles around our ministers throats. The private health insurer is calling the shots as we watch our NHS stripped of it’s lifelines by these callous bastards, also controlling the welfare agenda as it lays its dead out for all to see.

        Shamed in their own country for disability denial, they sought to bring their fetid, corrupt, ball game to the UK with our politicians wallets welcoming their crooked ideals.

        Our people, your loved ones, a brother or sister perhaps, are the fuel of this money hungry, out of control parasite.

        You are all expendable, completely forgotten as the dollar bill frenzy takes hold……….
        What is more important?

        “YOUR LIVES OR THE SICK CRAVINGS OF A BENT MINISTER

  7. Humanity2012 says:

    Britain is a Sick Degenerate Dystopian Society and the British Public at
    Large are as much to Blame as Arrogant Politicians

  8. Humanity2012 says:

    My Blood Boils with Rage at how People at Large have Fiddled About whilst
    the Welfare State has been Wrecked by the Con Dem Boneheads

    People should be out Protesting En Masse Not being a Bunch of Zombies

    Hands Off the Poor it is the Rich who are the Greedy Ones

    No Vote For ” Conservatives ” or ” Liberal Democrats “

  9. geoff reynolds says:

    SUPERSPASTICS 1 IDS 0

    IN ANOTHER BLOW TO MR EL SUPREMO, THE BIGGEST SHITHOUSE EVER TO LEAVE A WOMB. THE COURTS HAVE FOUND IN FAVOUR OF THE UNDERDOG………..

    SMITH AND HIS ASSASSINS, THE DWP, HAVE SPENT A SMALL FORTUNE OF THE BENEFITS THAT THEY STOLE, TRYING TO HUSH UP THE FOUR REPORTS REGARDING “UNIVERSAL CREDIT”.

    DESPITE MORE PRESSURE TO WITHHOLD THE INFORMATION FROM PUBLIC SCRUTINY, A JUDGE REFUSED THE APPEAL AGAINST HIS RULING.

    PERHAPS WE MIGHT BE ABLE TO SEE THE MORTALITY STATISTICS THAT THE GOVERNMENTS EXTERMINATION SQUAD ARE LOATHE TO RELEASE?

    I PUT A FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST ABOUT UNIVERSAL CREDIT A WHILE BACK AND THIS WAS THEIR ANSWER;

    Thank you for your Freedom of Information request received 30 July 2013. You asked;

    QUESTION;
    “How much has been spent on this doomed fiasco?

    When will ministers accept that it is not fit for purpose and never will be?

    Whose head will roll if it is abandoned?

    What happened to the security measures within the software?

    How long before it is abandoned, leaving one of the largest bills for a failed project in British
    history?”

    ANSWER;
    We hold no information on a doomed fiasco.

    If you have any queries about this letter please contact me quoting the reference number
    above.
    Yours sincerely,

    DWP Central FoI Team
    ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

    THE DWP HAVE CLAIMED THERE WOULD BE A “chilling effect” IF THEY WERE FORCED TO PUBLISH – AFFECTING THE HONESTY OF CIVIL SERVANTS WHO CONTRIBUTE TO THE REPORTS……………………….

    “ROUGHLY TRANSLATED, THE LYING BASTARDS ARE HAVING TO EXPLAIN THE COSTLY, MONUMENTAL FUCK UPS THAT HAVE BEEN WITHHELD FROM THE ELECTORATE”

  10. GEOFF REYNOLDS says:

    From: Nigel Alter

    20 April 2014

    Dear Department for Work and Pensions,

    During my time as a Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) claimant, the
    Disability Employment Adviser (DEA) at my local Jobcentre expressed
    a doubt about my eligibility for this benefit. I was referred to an
    Occupational Health Assessment conducted by Atos Healthcare on the
    DWP’s behalf. This assessment determined that I had limited
    capability for work. Consequently, the DEA amended my Jobseeker’s
    Agreement to show that I could work only 16 hours per week and
    advised me to claim ESA. However, when attempting to do so, the
    question arose of my fitness for work so I mentioned the findings
    of the Occupational Health Assessment. I was informed that these
    findings could not be introduced when applying for ESA and that I
    had to be completely unfit for work in order to claim this benefit.
    Otherwise, the system would insist that I should claim JSA. My
    application for ESA was turned down.

    ……………………..THE MAGIC ROUNDABOUT OF DWP BULLSHIT…………

    https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/occupational_health_assessment_f#incoming-513316

  11. GEOFF REYNOLDS says:

    “THESE THREE QUOTES FROM THE DWP FREEDOM OF INFORMATION TEAM MUST BE FIRMLY GRASPED, AS THEY SHOW THE DEEP SHAMBLES OF THE POLICY OF THEIR OWN DEPARTMENT.

    QUOTE 1/

    There is no requirement that claimants have a medical certificate indicating they are
    “completely unfit for work” in order to claim ESA.

    QUOTE 2/
    OHAs are not used to determine whether or not a claimant has limited capability for work. That is decided by a DWP decision maker on the evidence in each case after a claim has been made.

    QUOTE 3/
    an OHA has never determined whether a customer /
    claimant is fit for work or not and is not used to confirm the existence of a particular condition
    or disability.

    If you have any queries about this letter please contact me quoting the reference number
    above.
    Yours sincerely,

    DWP Central FoI Team

    ……………………………………………..therefore, in a nutshell, it is the mere presumption of a DWP DECISION MAKER, WHO HAS NO MEDICAL QUALIFICATION WHATSOEVER, THAT IS USED TO STEAL YOUR DISABILITY BENEFITS……………….

  12. Humanity2012 says:

    The Country is such a Hole

    It is an Abyss a Nasty Place to bring up a Child

    A Katasthropegaren

  13. Humanity2012 says:

    The Nastiness Selfishness and Bone Headed Brutality of Urban British Society
    must be Swept Aside so the UnderDog can be Less of a Victim of Oppression
    Suffering and Misery

  14. jay says:

    http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/unemployed-gardener-aged-20-hanged-3576403#.U3uCV4e3ONc.twitter

    Not just children but youngsters desperate to make a future for themselves are being denied their right to a reasonable life WHILE Britain’s politicians are living the high life AND swilling in a self serving cesspit of propaganda.

    ——————-
    “A 20 year old unemployed gardener desperate for work killed himself after he was left “demoralised” by hours of form-filling at his local job centre.”

    In April last year he lost his job due to the firm down-sizing.

    He failed to get responses on almost every application after being “UNDERCUT” on wages by younger and more inexperienced candidates.

    According to his family his period out of work and GOVERNMENT RED TAPE left him feeling “put down with no self worth.”
    ———————-

    This culture of hammering the sick, the disabled and unemployed has to STOP it’s inhumane.

    The working population need to show solidarity and stop believing divisive media lies. Those working for the DWP need to take a good hard look at themselves and the damage and suffering THEY ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR and inflicting on their claimants.

  15. Humanity2012 says:

    Yes Stand Up to Nazi Britain Persecution of the Poor and Vulnerable

    Defend Welfare Benefits Increase Welfare Benefit’s

    Get a Better Government Tax the Rich Hand’s Off the Poor

    Con Dem’s Out of Office Now and Forever

  16. Humanity2012 says:

    Daily Protests are Needed to Say No to Welfare Destruction and No to
    Politician’s behind it in Office or even MPS

    Politician’s Expenses Orgy is a Outrage

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