Winter death warning stats

The appeal from health chiefs for the public to be ready for a cold snap comes just weeks after it was revealed winter deaths across Lanarkshire are at a three-year high.

Figures revealed that 2873 people died across the region between December 2017 and March 2018 – a rise of ten per cent from the same period the previous year.

The death toll corresponded with one of the worst winters that Lanarkshire has endured in recent memory – including the‘beast from the East’storm.

According to the National Records of Scotland, the winter mortality rate in Lanarkshire rose from 2549 in 2015/16 to 2613 in 2016/17 – and went up again in 2017/18 to 2873.

The winter mortality figures are significantly higher than the number of people dying in the warmer months of the year.

In Lanarkshire, 2249 died between April and July 2017, and another 2353 died between August and November 2017.

The seasonal increase in mortality across Lanarkshire – the number of ‘additional’deaths in the winter (compared with the average for the periods before and after it) – was 572 for winter 2017/18.

This was 231 more than the corresponding figure of 341 for winter 2016/17.

Figures from National Records show that seasonal increase in winter mortality can fluctuate, with some years seeing unusually large seasonal increases, such as the 511 across Lanarkshire in winter 2014/15, which was followed by 363 in winter 2015/16.