OAP winter death toll now the highest in western Europe

SCOTLAND has suffered the deadliest December for more than a decade amid soaring flu rates and freezing weather.

The elderly have been hit particularly hard by the severe conditions – and the country now has the highest death rate of over-65s in western Europe.

Figures reveal 5,100 Scots died in the last four weeks of last month – the most for any December since 2004.

The NHS has struggled to cope with an influx of patients affected by the severe weather, including repeated snow storms and treacherous ice nationwide.

Soaring numbers of people needing hospital treatment for flu has also heaped pressure on health board staff, with many patients suffering long waits and delays for treatment.

The number of older Scots who died last week has been ‘significantly’ more than expected, according to officials, with large numbers reported at the end of December and start of January.

Leading microbiologist Professor Hugh Pennington, of the University of Aberdeen, said that the rise in pensioner deaths could be related to this year’s flu vaccine.

He said: ‘It really depends which viruses are doing the rounds and this year there have been several, such as the Aussie flu and the Japanese B, which are all contributing to the problem.

‘It may be that the vaccine hasn’t protected pensioners as well as we would have hoped.

‘There may be some viruses that haven’t gone into the vaccine – not everybody gets the vaccine, too.

‘Sometimes even if the flu vaccine does have the right viruses, it doesn’t protect as well as we would have liked. This was the case last year.’

So far this winter 75 flu outbreaks have been reported, with the majority in care homes, and more than 5,000 people have been admitted to hospital as a result of the bug.

Of the 80 people treated in intensive care since December, 21 have died.

Alex Cole Hamilton, Scottish Liberal Democrat health spokesman, said: ‘These statistics make tragic reading.

‘We also have to have a look at the crisis in our health service in terms of waiting times, staff shortages and bed blocking, which is acting as a barrier to care.

‘Any headline statistic like this needs a public inquiry.’

It was revealed last week that Scotland was in the grip of the country’s worst flu season for seven years, as the number of patients being treated for the illness continued to rise. Health Secretary Shona Robison said she hoped that the flu season had peaked, but admitted that Scotland was ‘not out of the woods’ yet.

An 18-year-old woman was one of those to die after contracting flu. Bethany Walker, from Applecross, Wester Ross, was airlifted to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness but died after her condition worsened.

The teenager’s mother, Heather Teale, said her daughter had been suffering from flu which developed into pneumonia before she was rushed to hospital.

Miss Walker was treated by specialists in the intensive care unit but her condition ‘rapidly deteriorated’ before she died.

A spokesman for the Scottish Government said that the rise in flu-like illnesses was ‘contributing to a big rise in demand for NHS services that staff are responding to’.

She added: ‘We are continuing to monitor the situation closely and keep in contact with boards to assist.’

A spokesman for Health Protection Scotland said: ‘There is no single cause of additional deaths in the winter months but they are often attributed in part to cold weather.’

‘Not everybody gets the vaccine’ ‘Statistics make tragic reading’