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Weekend admissions to NHS hospitals 'more likely to die'
February 03, 2012
New research shows that patients admitted to NHS hospitals at weekends are more likely to die following admission than those admitted during the week.
People who are admitted to NHS hospitals at weekends are more likely to die than those admitted on weekdays, a study has found.
Researchers at University College London and the Universities of Birmingham and East Anglia analysed data on all admissions to NHS hospitals in England in 2009-10.
This included more than 14.2 million emergency and planned admissions and more than 187,300 patient deaths within 30 days of being admitted to hospital.
The researchers found that patients were 16 per cent more likely to die if they were admitted on a Sunday than a Wednesday, and 11 per cent more likely to die following a Saturday admission.
Writing in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, they revealed: "Admission on Tuesday through Friday was associated with the lowest risk of in-hospital death, while admission on Sunday was associated with the highest risk."
Dr Andrew Goddard, a spokesman for the Royal College of Physicians, said that hospitals admitting acutely ill patients should have a consultant physician on-site for at least 12 hours a day, seven days a week.
Commenting on the reasons for the observed trend, he claimed: "The two most important are that the patients are more ill [when admitted at weekends] and there are fewer doctors available."
The findings suggest that patients may want to rely on their private medical insurance and be admitted to a private hospital if they require medical care at weekends.
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