Winter deaths in NHS Highland on a decline

THE number of people who died during the winter months on the West Coast fell last year, according to figures released by the National Records of Scotland (NRS).

The report compared the number of deaths during the four winter months (December to March) to those in the non-winter months.

In the NHS Highland area, there was an increase of 190 deaths during the winter of 2016/17, down from 290 the year before – which was nearly four times the 80 winter deaths in 2007/08. In the NHS Western Isles area, winter deaths fell to 30 in 2016/17 from 40 the year before, but way up from 10 in 2007/08.

Nationwide, the a total of 20,930 figures show deaths were registered across Scotland from December 2016 to March 2017, compared with 20,509 in the previous winter (2015/16). The seasonal difference was 2,720 for winter 2016/17, slightly lower than the corresponding figure of 2,850 for winter 2015/16.

The seasonal increase of 2,720 in winter 2016/17 was smaller than in most of the 65 previous winters, but it was still above the level seen in five of the previous 10 winters. NRS statistics show that mortality can fluctuate markedly from winter to winter: occasionally one year will have an unusually large figure, such as the 4,060 for winter 2014/15.

NRS chief executive Tim Ellis said: ‘The long-term trend since the early 1950s has clearly been downward. There is no single cause.’