NHS patients do suffer a ‘weekend effect’, say experts

THE “weekend effect”, in which NHS patients are more likely to die if admitted on Saturday or Sunday, is probably real, but a consistent seven-day service is 20 years away, academics have warned.

Research from University College London and Imperial College London has found that people admitted at the weekend fare less well than those who arrive during the week.

The Government has used their findings to push ahead with a “seven-day” NHS, but other researchers have claimed that the results are misleading, failing to take into account that patients admitted at weekends may be sicker.

However, at a briefing in London yesterday, researchers carrying out a five-year review into the “weekend effect” said it was clear that care was substandard on Saturday and Sunday and staffing gaps needed to be filled.

Prof Julian Bion, from the University of Birmingham, said: “I’ve been working as a front-line specialist in intensive care medicine for 30 years, doing nights and weekends and I think care at weekends isn’t as good as week days. I’m not sure that translates into more deaths. I am reasonably confident that it translates into less good outcomes in a variety of ways.”

Research in 2014 found that the weekend effect raised mortality rates by around 0.5 per cent, which was leading to nearly 4,200 extra deaths a year. Now, most academics believe it is prob- ably attributable to a general lack services, and nursing staff.

A recent study of 93,000 stroke admissions by Imperial College found that stroke patients were less likely to get a scan or clot busting drugs at the weekend and more likely to develop pneumonia at the weekend.

The review into the weekend effect will be published at the end of the year. of