Increasing Death Rates

C: As per my understanding death rate is defined as the total deaths divided by the total population of the country, is this correct?

I: Yes, you can go ahead with this

C: Sure, so has the death rates gone up in a particular state/zone or is it a country wide phenomenon?

I: It has gone up across the country

C: Ok, so are there any other countries which have seen an increase in the death rates or is it specific to India?

I: The issue is specific to India

C: Sure, so do we know whether the number of natural deaths increased or is it the man-made/accidental deaths? The natural deaths will include deaths related to health issues, calamities, pandemic etc. while the man-made deaths will include road accidents, suicides etc.

I: The deaths due to road accidents have increased over the past 1 year. Also, for this case you can assume that we are talking about the pre-pandemic period.

C: Thanks for the info, so the increase in deaths due to road accidents can either be because of increase in number of accidents or because of increase in number of deaths per accident. Do we have any data around this?

I: Good question, so the number of accidents has approximately remained the same.

C: Then this means that the number of deaths per accident is increasing. Now I would like to understand if the increase in the deaths is taking place after reaching the hospital or is it the on-spot deaths which are seeing a rise

I: Again a good question, so we are seeing higher number of deaths in the hospital during the treatment

C: Increased number of deaths during the treatment can be either because of unavailability of doctors or resources.

I: There has been no change in the number of doctors and their qualification over the period of concern. Can you elaborate a bit on the resources part that you mentioned?

C: Sure, so by resources I meant the things that are generally required in the treatment of an accident patient which will include the medical equipment, medicines, blood, saline etc.

I: Makes sense so we are facing shortage of blood which is leading to a greater number of casualties during treatment

C: Ok so now I will try to identify the reason for the shortage of blood. Firstly, I would like to understand if we are facing the issue with a particular blood group or is it across all the blood groups

I: The issue is across the blood groups

C: Ok so as per my understanding the major of blood for the blood banks is the blood donation camps. 𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝐵𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑑 𝐶𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑑=𝑁𝑜. 𝑜𝑓 𝐶𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑠×𝐹𝑜𝑜𝑡𝑓𝑎𝑙𝑙 /𝑐𝑎𝑚𝑝×% 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑑𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔×𝐵𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑑 𝑑𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑/𝑑𝑜𝑛𝑜𝑟

I: Right so the number of camps and the footfall per camp are unchanged, but we are seeing a dip in the number of people donating the blood after reaching the camp

C: So, there can be 3 major reasons for the same. First is process related issue, second can be infrastructure related issue and third can me environment related issue. However, since the issue is across the country for past 1 year, process seems to be the most key reason

I: You are right so the registration process at the donation centers has become lengthy due to some of the government regulation which has increased the length of the registration form significantly leading to lower conversion

C: Makes sense, do you want me to deep dive further to understand the reason for the change in the process

I: I think we can close the case now. Thank you