Commenting on today’s 2023 Health at a Glance report from
OECD, Veena Raleigh, Senior Fellow, The King’s Fund
said:
‘The latest comparisons of health care quality and outcomes in
OECD countries show that, overall, the UK continues to compare
poorly with comparator countries on many health outcomes. For
leading killers such as cardiovascular disease and cancer, the UK
under-performs along the whole pathway of preventing disease
through to early diagnosis and treatment of it. Hence the UK’s
higher rate of deaths following a heart attack or stroke, poorer
cancer survival, and higher rates of avoidable deaths – all of
which contribute to the country’s low ranking on life
expectancy.
‘Pre-pandemic life expectancy in the UK ranked poorly among
comparator countries - with the exception of the US - especially
among women. As in most countries, mortality in the UK rose
sharply in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, however, the
increase was higher in the UK than in many comparator European
countries*. Added to which, the burden of long-term and untreated
illness in the UK is now burgeoning. Updated ONS data due out
later this year will show whether or not the pace of recovery in
life expectancy in the UK matches that seen elsewhere.
‘The UK has much ground to make up if it is to improve its
international standing on health outcomes and life expectancy,
the sentinel global measure of a country’s health status. The
government needs not just to ensure recovery from the impacts of
the pandemic on health and health care services, but also to make
up for the UK’s lack-lustre pre-pandemic performance in these
areas. As well as tackling waiting times for diagnostics and
treatment, ambitious, cross-government action is needed to
prevent disease by reducing risk factors such as obesity and
smoking.’
ENDS
Notes to editors
To read the Health at a Glance report please go to: OECD Health at a Glance 2023
*Comparisons of all-cause
mortality between European countries and regions - Office for
National Statistics
