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To: Secretary of State, Jeremy Hunt
Publicly retract incorrect statistics quoted regarding hospital weekend mortality.
The health secretary has made frequent public statements regarding weekend mortality in hospitals, that are statistically incorrect. These need to be publicly retracted to help allay the unnecessary anxiety caused to the public.
Why is this important?
The health secretary has frequently and publicly quoted statistics claiming that there is increased mortality in NHS hospitals over weekends. This is incorrect. In fact, fewer patients die in hospitals over the weekend than any other day of the week.
The health secretary refers to research which claim an excess 11,000 hospital deaths amongst patients who are admitted into hospital over weekends. He fails to make clear that this refers to a "weekend" period of Friday to Monday (i.e. 4 days) and death within 30 days of admission, not upon admission at the weekend.
He claims that these 11,000 "excess" deaths are related to lack of staffing by junior doctors at weekends; there is absolutely no evidence that this is the case. He incorrectly makes these claims, when even the very study from which he quotes, clearly states that there is no evidence these deaths are preventable and did not identify a causative factor.
He fails to acknowledge research that has demonstrated the patients who are admitted to hospitals as weekends are often sicker than those admitted during the week and therefore more likely to die.
Whilst there is a need to investigate these statistics in more detail and improve NHS care wherever possible throughout the NHS, these incorrect public statements should not be used as a justification for imposing a new junior doctor contract and should be publicly retracted. The incorrect use of statistics by the health secretary has led to huge, yet entirely unnecessary, anxiety to the general public, many of whom are now scared to be admitted to hospital over a weekend and have even not attended hospital when acutely unwell over a weekend because of these fears. This needs to be redressed.
The health secretary refers to research which claim an excess 11,000 hospital deaths amongst patients who are admitted into hospital over weekends. He fails to make clear that this refers to a "weekend" period of Friday to Monday (i.e. 4 days) and death within 30 days of admission, not upon admission at the weekend.
He claims that these 11,000 "excess" deaths are related to lack of staffing by junior doctors at weekends; there is absolutely no evidence that this is the case. He incorrectly makes these claims, when even the very study from which he quotes, clearly states that there is no evidence these deaths are preventable and did not identify a causative factor.
He fails to acknowledge research that has demonstrated the patients who are admitted to hospitals as weekends are often sicker than those admitted during the week and therefore more likely to die.
Whilst there is a need to investigate these statistics in more detail and improve NHS care wherever possible throughout the NHS, these incorrect public statements should not be used as a justification for imposing a new junior doctor contract and should be publicly retracted. The incorrect use of statistics by the health secretary has led to huge, yet entirely unnecessary, anxiety to the general public, many of whom are now scared to be admitted to hospital over a weekend and have even not attended hospital when acutely unwell over a weekend because of these fears. This needs to be redressed.
