I think it's really worth noting the sort of stupid science behind this. Yes, deaths will decrease during a strike - because extra other staff will be made avai

I think it's really worth noting the sort of stupid science behind this. Yes, deaths will decrease during a strike - because extra other staff will be made available to cover the strike whilst non-essential work will be delayed until after the strike. To make a real judgement you need to look at the statistics across both a lead and lag period - the extra patients who died in the lead up due to over-worked staff, the extra patients who died in the routine operations that were displaced etc. The exact same issues are at the core of the source of the UK strikes mentioned in the article: > He said: ‘…three times less medical cover at weekends as they (doctors) do in weeks and that means that there's a 15% greater chance of you dying if you are admitted on a Sunday, compared to being admitted on a Wednesday.’ Because no one gets admitted to hospital for routine reasons on Sunday, so if you're admitted to hospital on a Sunday it';s because your case is more serious. If you make doctors do routine work on weekends you achieve 3 things: 1. Doctors leave the UK to work for employees who aren't moronic psychopaths. Driving down the level of care in the UK causing extra deaths. 2. The exact same people who are routinely being admitted on wendesday are being admitted on weekends too - so the death rate on wednesday admissions go up whilst death rate of sunday admissions go down. With no net benefit. 3. The government pretends it has reformed the NHS whilst dramatically reducing its efficacy. Note how, initially we talked about the total deaths going down during strikes? Becuase routine operations are cancelled? And then we talk about death rate in relation to the weekend shifts? They are literally just two sides of the same coin, want to complain about it being bad? Cite the rate! Want to claim it's good? Well quote the total number! Perfect!