National study casts doubt on higher weekend death rate and proposals for seven-day hospital services

Professor Matt Sutton led the research, which looked at deaths in hospital within 30 days of admission. He said: “Hospitals apply a higher severity threshold when choosing which patients to admit to hospital at weekends – patients with non-serious illnesses are not admitted, so those who are admitted at the weekend are on average sicker than during the week and more likely to die regardless of the quality of care they receive.

“As a result, the figures comparing death rates at weekends and weekdays are skewed. The NHS has rushed to fix a perceived problem that further research shows does not exist.”

The study, published in the Journal of Health Services Research and Policy, shows that patients attending A&E at the weekend are no more likely to die than patients attending A&E during the week.

Rachel Meacock, lead author of the study, said: “The so-called ‘weekend effect’ is a statistical artefact and extending services will not reduce the number of deaths. Instead, the most likely impact of the planned service extensions will be an increase in the number of less severely ill patients who are admitted at the weekend, further pushing up NHS costs.”

The paper, ‘Higher mortality rates amongst emergency patients admitted to hospital at weekends reflect a lower probability of admission’, was published in The Journal of Health Services Research and Policy.

doi: 10.1177/1355819616649630

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National study casts doubt on higher weekend death rate and proposals for seven-day hospital services