The government is trying to convince us of the massive threat of venous (), for some reason the threat of deep vein thromboses and pulmonary has been hyped up beyond all proportion in recent years. Sometimes myths get propagated from nowhere as no one has bothered to check actual facts from scratch, in my opinion this is the case with venous . This is a direct quote from the Department of Health's document on the subject
"In 2005 the Health Select Committee estimated that there were around 25,000 deaths each year from in hospitals in England and that the cost of treating the long-term disability caused by was around £640 million a year. In 2007 there were 16,670 recorded deaths and Wales where pulmonary embolism and deep vein thrombosis () were mentioned on the death certificate (Office of National Statistics)."
This is disingenuous to say the least. Clots in the leg veins () are common, pulmonary () are much rarer and deaths from are even rarer again. The government is spinning the evidence and facts. There were only 16670 deaths in one year with or PE on the death certificate, so a or PE was only the leading cause or a contributory cause in this number. They then go on to say that there are many more that are not put on the death certificate, in actual fact this is their faulty assumption. In reality are common and are by far the most common reason that will end up on a death certificate, however equating a death certificate with a as a contributory factor as being a preventable death directly due to is simply preposterous, it is the logic of spin doctors, not scientists, no wonder this 25,00o came from the Health Select and not a proper medical journal.
To then jump to the conclusion that there are 25,000 'preventable deaths' a year from is utterly ludicrous, there are probably way under this figure in terms of deaths, so to assume that 100% of these deaths are preventable is utterly ludicrous, utterly utterly ludicrous.
Medicine and life is a game of risks and balances. The government and NICE have come up with prevention guidelines which mean that virtually everyone in hospital needs to be treated with blood thinners. Basically by making the above faulty assumptions they are forcing blood thinning drugs on a hell of a lot of patients and probably doing a lot more harm than good. For one there is no good evidence that any prophylactic agents can reduce the risk of fatal , also the blood thinning drugs have some very well documented side effects, some of which are rather rare but extremely serious and life threatening.
To illustrate just how ludicrous the government's figure of 25,000 preventable deaths is, I have done a little calculation. Interestingly this figure of 25,000 was not produced by scientists or in a reputable medical journal, it was made up by the politicians of the Health Select Committee. Anyway if one assumed that every single person in the country had a hip replacement in one year, one would then expect there to be about 40,000 deaths from that year , of note hip replacements are a very high risk procedure for death from . So even if the whole country had a hip replacements then it could still be argued that we would not even get to 25,000 'preventable' deaths.
This whole sorry saga is rather reminiscent of the whole swine flu hype. The weak and corrupt state wants to make itself appear powerful and clever by creating a massive threat and then trying to stamp it out, hence creating the massively exaggerated threat of death from and then try to combat it. As part of the same process a lot of drug companies and their friends on government panels like NICE are making a lot of money from selling a lot of drugs that thin the blood. At the same time patients are probably worse off as a result of the various side effects of these drugs, while the rate of death from will not really be affected at all. Same old politics, a new topic for abuse and propaganda.
Thromboembolism propaganda from HMG
"In 2005 the Health Select Committee estimated that there were around 25,000 deaths each year from in hospitals in England and that the cost of treating the long-term disability caused by was around £640 million a year. In 2007 there were 16,670 recorded deaths and Wales where pulmonary embolism and deep vein thrombosis () were mentioned on the death certificate (Office of National Statistics)."
This is disingenuous to say the least. Clots in the leg veins () are common, pulmonary () are much rarer and deaths from are even rarer again. The government is spinning the evidence and facts. There were only 16670 deaths in one year with or PE on the death certificate, so a or PE was only the leading cause or a contributory cause in this number. They then go on to say that there are many more that are not put on the death certificate, in actual fact this is their faulty assumption. In reality are common and are by far the most common reason that will end up on a death certificate, however equating a death certificate with a as a contributory factor as being a preventable death directly due to is simply preposterous, it is the logic of spin doctors, not scientists, no wonder this 25,00o came from the Health Select and not a proper medical journal.
Medicine and life is a game of risks and balances. The government and NICE have come up with prevention guidelines which mean that virtually everyone in hospital needs to be treated with blood thinners. Basically by making the above faulty assumptions they are forcing blood thinning drugs on a hell of a lot of patients and probably doing a lot more harm than good. For one there is no good evidence that any prophylactic agents can reduce the risk of fatal , also the blood thinning drugs have some very well documented side effects, some of which are rather rare but extremely serious and life threatening.
To illustrate just how ludicrous the government's figure of 25,000 preventable deaths is, I have done a little calculation. Interestingly this figure of 25,000 was not produced by scientists or in a reputable medical journal, it was made up by the politicians of the Health Select Committee. Anyway if one assumed that every single person in the country had a hip replacement in one year, one would then expect there to be about 40,000 deaths from that year , of note hip replacements are a very high risk procedure for death from . So even if the whole country had a hip replacements then it could still be argued that we would not even get to 25,000 'preventable' deaths.
This whole sorry saga is rather reminiscent of the whole swine flu hype. The weak and corrupt state wants to make itself appear powerful and clever by creating a massive threat and then trying to stamp it out, hence creating the massively exaggerated threat of death from and then try to combat it. As part of the same process a lot of drug companies and their friends on government panels like NICE are making a lot of money from selling a lot of drugs that thin the blood. At the same time patients are probably worse off as a result of the various side effects of these drugs, while the rate of death from will not really be affected at all. Same old politics, a new topic for abuse and propaganda.