Findings challenge Jeremy Hunt’s claims that patients admitted at the weekend are at greater risk of dying.
Mental health patients admitted to hospital on a Saturday or Sunday are no more likely to die than those who arrive on a weekday, according to a study of how more than 45,000 patients fared in British hospitals.
The findings challenge Jeremy Hunt’s claim that patients admitted at the weekend are at greater risk of dying because too few doctors are on duty. The health secretary has said as many as 11,000 patients die avoidably every year as a result of the “weekend effect”.
On Monday a judicial review hearing at the high court will consider whether Hunt has the legal power to impose a new contract on all trainee medics in England.
The case has been brought by five junior doctors who call themselves Justice For Health, supported by £300,000 in crowdfunding. The two-day hearing will hear claims that Hunt has misrepresented complex evidence on hospital death rates in order to justify the push for a “truly seven-day NHS” and the new contract.
For full article see The Guardian 19 September 2016