Excess deaths - time to stop the headlines and do the serious work

The Health Secretary had an epiphany. Will that translate into serious investigations?

The Health Secretary Steve Barclay told Sky News that “it’s extremely complicated as to what the drive of those excess deaths are” and called the year-ending report of the excess deaths “concerning.”  

An epiphany that is late but welcome. 

In August 2022, we drew attention to the rising toll of excess deaths. In the week ending 29 July, deaths were 18 per cent above the five-year average. We needed an investigation into the causes, particularly given that registered deaths had been above the norm for most of the previous three months.  

Possibly due to the turbulence of the Truss regime, the government did nothing when in mid-October, deaths were still 17 per cent above the 5-year average.  However, we had the Coffey plan to fix the NHS for a short time. The plan involved 7,000 extra hospital beds - that haven’t yet materialised - to face off the winter crises. 

But all was not lost: Barclay was back at the helm to resolve the winter health crisis, and he knew it was “complicated.”

The po…