When doctors go on strike, the death rate falls. It has been measured every time it has happened. Israel, 1973: doctors strike for a month. Deaths in Jerusalem drop by half. The undertakers notice first. Los Angeles, 1976: surgeons strike for 5 weeks over insurance. The county death rate falls, then climbs back to normal the week they return and the postponed operations begin. Israel again, 1983 and 2000. Same result. Bogotá, 1976. Same. A review of every strike on record found that mortality either stayed flat or went down. Not once did it rise. Here is why. Medical error is the third leading cause of death in America, after heart disease and cancer, at around 250,000 a year. It does not appear on a death certificate because there is no box for it. In Britain, 1 hospital admission in 16 is caused by a reaction to a drug the patient was correctly prescribed. Properly prescribed medicines, taken as directed, kill about 100,000 Americans a year. That figure is 30 years old and nobody has updated it, because nobody is paid to. The hospital is one of the most dangerous buildings a well person can enter, and the most dangerous thing in it is the pad. So the next time your doctor is on strike, do what the data says and stay home, eat a steak and have a lie down. Statistically it is the safest appointment you will get all year.