News

Despair now accounts for one-sixth of all years of life lost

Deaths from drug misuse, alcohol use and suicide, often referred to as deaths of despair, are on the rise.  New research, by the Strategy Unit and the Health Foundation, show how deaths rates vary by sex and socio-economic deprivation, and how these rates changed during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

**Alt text:** Line chart showing casemix-adjusted odds of admission from April 2025 to January 2026. Values fluctuate around 0.9–1.15 from April to August, then rise sharply from September and remain mostly between 1.2 and 1.5. The series peaks at approximately 1.56 in January 2026. Dashed horizontal lines show reference and control limits for the earlier and later periods.
News

Tracking Hospital Admission Thresholds Within Emergency Departments: A Feasibility Study

This new analysis explores the concept of hospital admission thresholds and assesses the feasibility of tracking these thresholds within emergency departments.


Blog post Better use of analysis | Learning and development

Diagnosing harms?

All medicines are poisons. Everything that cures could kill if administered in the wrong doses, to the wrong people, at the wrong times, in the wrong ways.


News Better use of analysis | Comparative Analysis | Elective care | Finance and payments | Problem Structuring

Strategy Unit devises a new method for classifying outpatient appointments

The number of outpatient attendances in England is now approaching 100 million each year.