USE CASH TO SAVE 30,000 LIVES IN UK

SPENDING just half of Britain’s bloated foreign aid budget on the NHS and social care could save almost 100 lives a day.

Underfunding of the health service could lead to the deaths of 30,000 people between now and 2020, says a report. But plugging this “mortality gap” would cost just £6.3billion a year. The foreign aid budget is £13.3billion. It comes as the Daily Express Stop The Foreign Aid

Madness Crusade piles pressure on the Government to immediately redirect billions of pounds in Official Development Assistance to underfunded frontline services.

Lawrence King, Professor of Economics at the University of Cambridge and study co-author, called the underfunding of the NHS and social care system “a public health disaster”.

The observational study, published in BMJ Open today, analysed data on deaths, life expectancy and potential years of life lost, and statistics on health and social care resources and finances, between 2001 to 2014.

Their analysis showed that between 2001 and 2010 deaths in England fell by an average of 0.77 per cent every year, but then rose by an average of 0.87 per cent every year between 2011 and 2014.

Spending restraints were associated with 45,368 excess deaths between 2010 and 2014.

On the basis of trends, researchers estimate an extra 152,141 people could die between 2015 and 2020, equivalent to 83 extra deaths every day.

The research by a team from the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford, University College, London, and King’s College London, suggests the over 60s and care home residents will be hardest hit. The study also claims a dwindling number of hospital and community nurses is a “critical factor” in the number of deaths. Chancellor Philip Hammond, due to deliver his Budget next Wednesday, was last night urged to spend more on the crisis-hit health and social care sector before it collapses.

Janet Davies, chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing, said: “This is yet more evidence that links the current shortage of nurses with increased patient mortality.

“Despite years of warnings, all parts of the NHS and social care system do not have enough nurses and people, particularly vulnerable and older individuals, are paying the highest price.”

Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, said: “If these findings are anything like true they are incredibly worrying and they certainly reinforce the case for a big injection of funds into the NHS and care in next week’s Budget.”

The Daily Express has led the way in calling for the Government to scrap its arbitrary commitment, introduced by former prime minister David Cameron in 2013, to spending at least 0.7 per cent of our national income on foreign aid each year. Thousands of readers have backed our crusade and petition calling for a halt to the aid spending scandal.

John O’Connell, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Until the 0.7 per cent target is scrapped, we will never be rid of the unacceptable spending that has wasted hundreds of millions of our cash.”

THE first duty of any government is to look after its own people. So what are we to make of the news that half the cash we are wasting on foreign aid could save 30,000 lives a year, especially among the elderly?

Indeed, is there any worse indictment on government policy than that we are throwing away money on facile projects and countries that do not need it when we could be taking care of our own? Foreign aid, let it not be forgotten, has been spent on projects such as stopping Chinese workers from smoking, getting people in India to cut back on fizzy drinks and channelling vast amounts into an Ethiopian version of the Spice Girls.

The problem of social care is going to get worse, not better, as time goes on. Already there is a crisis in care for older people, with not enough care homes and in some cases, institutions that are not fit for purpose.

We need better qualified staff too. And the population is ageing: more elderly people are going to need help in the future, either in the form of care workers visiting them or moving full-time into a home. At the moment no one knows how this is to be funded. The solution is staring us in the face.

The Conservative Party threw away a commanding lead in the polls before the last election when they suggested family homes would have to be sold in order to provide for care in old age. This is their chance to repair the damage.

The amount we spend on foreign aid is hugely unpopular with the voters, as witnessed by the coupons sent into this office and the online petition. Slash this budget and use it to provide better care for the elderly.

It is the moral duty of the Government and it makes good electoral sense, too.