The title of this article might read like clickbait or perhaps an exaggeration, however, it is a fact that multiple studies completed in different parts of the world have found that when doctors go on strike less people die. Other studies have found that doctors going on strike makes no difference to death rates. And no studies have found that death rates increase when doctors are on strike.
These studies go as far back as 1973 and the most recent study was in 2020. They also include a diverse range of countries - Columbia, the USA, Israel, Spain, Croatia, and Kenya.
The earliest study in 1973 was in Israel when doctors went on strike for one month and patient deaths dropped by 50 percent.
In 1976 in Bogota, Columbia, when medical doctors went on strike for 52 days, providing only emergency care for patients, the death rate dropped by 35 percent.
In the same year, Los Angeles County doctors went on strike and there was an 18 percent drop in mortality. As soon as the strike was over, the death rate returned to its usual higher levels.
It has been suggested that these numbers simply reflect a change in the location where the death is registered. The idea being that less people go to the hospital to die during a doctors’ strike and die elsewhere instead. However, data from another Israel study contradicts this idea.
In 2000 the Israel Medical Association undertook strike action that lasted for several months. There was not any official data so the Jerusalem Post surveyed non-profit making Jewish burial societies, which perform funerals for the majority of Israelis, to find out whether the industrial action was affecting deaths in the country.
The director of Jerusalem's Kehilat Yerushalayim burial society said “The number of funerals we have performed has fallen drastically”.
In May 1997 there were 139 deaths, in May 1998 there were 133 deaths, and in May 1999 there were 153 deaths. But in May 2000 when doctors were on strike there were only 93 deaths.
It is also well-known that Israel has one of the most technologically advanced and highest-quality healthcare systems in the world.
In 2016 in the UK doctors went on strike and there was a significant impact on services but there was no difference in the number of deaths.
In 2020 researchers in Kenya looked at the monthly death rates from public hospitals between 2016 and 2018. During the physicians' strike periods there was a significant decline in the number of patients seen, and at the same time a significant decline in the number of patient deaths.
Interestingly, studies looking at the effect of nurses going on strike show the opposite trend. More people die when there are fewer nurses. An MIT study looking at data from New York State found an 18 percent increase in deaths when nurses go on strike.
The Kenya study mentioned above did not find a connection between nurses’ striking and the number of deaths - it was only the doctors’ absence that reduced deaths.
Looking in more detail at the data it seems that the reduction in deaths when doctors are absent is in connection with elective (or planned) procedures and outpatient care, rather than emergency treatments. Separately from this data, in recent years there has been increasing concerns about polypharmacy (simultaneous use of multiple medicines) and the overuse of surgical procedures that in some cases are unnecessary. These are two of the areas where doctors appear to be killing patients.
Considering the amount of money and resources allocated to healthcare, especially in developed countries, we would expect that we can do better than this.
In the United States healthcare expenditure grew 9.7 percent to $4.1 trillion in 2020, or $12,530 per person, and accounted for 19.7 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Total healthcare expenditure in the UK in 2020 was £257.6 billion, equating to £3,840 per person. And representing 12.0 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).
I believe that by creating greater awareness about these issues we as active citizens can demand a better system whereby patients have more sustainable and more appropriate options available for healthcare. That’s what my new documentary is about.
Check out the Kickstarter campaign and video by clicking here..
