Parachute jumps for charity
Matthew Sinclair, who annoyingly has got my old non-John Major template to work, has the amusing research that the average parachute jump for charity costs the NHS rather a lot of money.The finding is in this paper. The casualty rate - 7% of charity jumpers require hospital admission - is eye-watering, and so in its own way is the average amount raised, of just £30. Taken together the cost to the NHS is 13.75 pounds for every pound raised.
We only have the abstract to go on so two questions seem to me immediately obvious - how did they get only £30 raised? Is that after paying costs? I sponsored David Aaronovitch, who I have never met and whose journalism I find exasperating, £20, to run a marathon. Surely your average parachute jumper could raise more?
Even if they could however it's unlikely they would raise enough to cover the cost of the NHS treatment (over £400 per person on average). So the other question is whether those NHS costs are an over-estimate, for example do they include fixed-costs? I have no reason to believe they are wrong, however.
posted by Matthew @ 4/20/2006 06:50:00 PM
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