Fudged Statistics
Tucked into an excellent piece by Deroy Murdock demonstrating the horrors of government run medicine in Canada and the UK, is a great example of how statistics can be fudged.
“Seriously ill patients are being kept in ambulances outside hospitals for hours so NHS trusts do not miss Government targets,” Daniel Martin wrote last year in London’s Daily Mail. “Thousands of people a year are having to wait outside accident and emergency departments because trusts will not let them in until they can treat them within four hours, in line with a Labour [party] pledge. The hold-ups mean ambulances are not available to answer fresh 911 calls. Doctors warned last night that the practice of ‘patient-stacking’ was putting patients’ health at risk.”
So, you see, technically the Labour party succeeded in getting Emergency Room patients treated within four hours. Unfortunately, they accomplished it by preventing people from getting in the ER to begin with.
The sad fact is this is far from the only example of fudged statistics coming out of the UK. Their crime data is notoriously suspect. When you hear a statistic, even from a theoretically trustworthy country, it’s a good idea to ask yourself what the possible ways it could be fudged are.