Covid19(84): Government's 'cure' killing more people than the disease

Truly shocking figures reveal that 173,000 patients suffering from life-threatening diseases did not attend hospital appointments between March and June this year.

That's a potentially far more deadly toll than casualties from Covid-19, yet even more patients are being turned away from hospitals because frontline staff can't get enough Covid tests and are having to stay at home. The cancer patients backlog means at least 35,000 are at risk of early deaths.

Charity Action Radiotherapy is warning that we may already be "past the point of no return" with treatments having to run at 135 percent capacity for the next six months to clear the waiting list.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock claims the cancer backlog has come down by half, but many MPs are not so reassured, saying those figures do not include those waiting to be diagnosed or relapsed patients.

Action Radiotherapy have calculated the true cancer backlog is 86,122.

A climate of fearmongering has not helped either as the BBC continues to run its daily death toll alongside distressing Covid-19 stories even though just 83 coronavirus deaths were registered in the week ending September 4. That's the lowest figure since early March. Tragically, more people died from suicide on average per week (118) in the last three months of 2019.

Overall, 8,996 deaths were recorded in the UK over the same September 4 week, which is 1,403 below the five-year average. Statistics don't lie and yet a nationwide Government induced panic is leading to a chronic dearth of tests for health workers, which means they can't help patients facing other life-threatening diseases. Confidence is the key to solving this calamity as Britons are more likely to die from some other cause than coronavirus.

NHS data reveals that 6,000 fewer patients suffering from heart attacks were admitted to hospital in March and April this year compared with last year. A similar story is true for those suffering from strokes (admissions down 17 percent), diabetes (down 36 percent) and dementia (down 51 percent).

"People with some of the most serious health concerns are going without the healthcare they desperately need," says an analyst at the King's Fund health charity.

It is also affecting health funding. With the closure of 750 high street shops during lockdown, the British Heart Foundation was losing £10million a month. 

Undoubtedly the cure has been much worse than the disease with the overall death rate from Covid-19 in the UK running at 627 per million, that's 0.06 percent. More than 1,600 people die every day in Britain from numerous causes. Nine people died from coronavirus on Monday this week.

As we all face the prospect of stricter rules during a second wave of the pandemic, it is vital that the Government keeps a sense of proportion. 

Measured common sense will save a lot more lives than Covid horror stories intended to keep us locked up indoors.