CPAP Blog

Jane Phare of the New Zealand Herald reported this weekend how a hidden epidemic is costing the country billions of dollars. The sleep deprivation epidemic is costing the economy in lost productivity even though treatment is relatively cheap.

Like we often found here on the CPAP blog, NZ researchers also link sleep deprivation with a variety of health problems including diabetes, obesity, heart failure, strokes, hypertension and some cancers. The story also mentions troubled sleep as a leading cause of car crashes.

In New Zealand, there is no public funding available for those  with sleep problems. An estimated 5.6% of 30 to 60-year-olds (close to 100,000 people) suffer from OSA. Leading sleep experts believe it costs just $94 (£36) to increase the quality of life for a year for sleep apnoea sufferers. Compared to the $6865 (£2,633) the NZ governing pharmaceutical body spends to achieve the same single-year improvement, modern sleep therapy is in fact very cheap. Despite the relative low cost of treatment and the massive benefits to the economy (fewer car crashes, fewer sick days, increased productivity) the NZ government is refusing to put money aside for sleep therapy.

Neighbouring Australia estimate that sleep disorders affect 6 per cent of the entire population, costing the country just short of £4 billion a year.

Comparing New Zealand with population-wise similarly sized Toronto, we find just 20 clinical beds for diagnosing and treating sleep disorders in New Zealand and 200 of those in Toronto. (There are just 170 such beds in the entire UK - see this post.) Despite the real need, these 20 beds aren’t used to capacity due to lack of funding.

Here’s a weird news item, from the States:

 ADRIAN — An Adrian woman reported to police Friday/Nov. 23 that she found a machine used by sleep apnea patients in her front yard. According to an Adrian Police Department report released Monday/Nov. 26, the woman, 60, found the continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine at about 1 p.m. in the front yard of her Vine Street home.

Source here - Lenawee Connection

I wonder, who looses their CPAP in the middle of the street? It’s not like it’ll fall through the whole in your pocket or something like that. Perhaps this CPAP user was sleep walking and dragged the machine along with him/her! Now that must have been a sight to behold.
If you live in that area and can’t find your CPAP, check with the police.

Loughborough Police announced this week they installed a Cell Occupant and Occupancy Monitoring System (COMS) into their refurbished cells. This monitoring system features radar equipment capable of detection breathing trouble such as experienced by someone choking on their vomit after a night out or by a sleep apnoea patient.

InLoughborough.com reports how the police custody suit was expanded and upgraded, including this fancy new system which allows one police officer to monitor up to four people instead of having assume a one on one position. Four new cells have been built each fitted with radar transmitters that can detect whether the person in the cell is breathing and sound an alarm if it detects a problem. Inspector Clive Thorpe, from the Criminal Justice Unit, said;

“The life signs monitoring system is projected to pay for itself within a year because it will save officer time and free up resources to be used elsewhere.”

Cosatt is the company behind the development of this system. You can read about the technology and principles here. Up to 40 cells can be monitored with one PC and it can be integrated with CCTV and other database systems. Each cell has to be treated to not leak microwaves so the detection system can work optimally. With the WiFi and mobile phone radiation controversy of recent years, I wonder how safe this is in itself. It’s a shame they don’t have specific information on how breathing cessation is detected.

The Leicestershire Constabulary has more information on their website here.

You can land yourself a hi-tech overnight stay from Monday onwards so if you’re curious, you know what to do where…