Having weekend surgery DOESN’T make you more likely to die
- Previous studies found being admitted on a weekend increases chance of death
- Jeremy Hunt once cited the claims in his attempt to try and push for a 7-day NHS
- Now scientists claim the ‘weekend effect’ doesn’t apply to emergency situations
Stephen Matthews For Mailonline
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Having emergency surgery on the weekend doesn’t make you more likely to die, a major study suggests.
In fact, patients who were admitted for treatment over a weekend were more likely to be operated on sooner, contrary to previous research.
Scientists now claim that the ‘weekend effect’ doesn’t apply to emergency situations – when a patient’s life may hang in the balance.
Patients who were admitted for treatment over a weekend were more likely to be operated on sooner, new research suggests
Researchers from Edinburgh University analysed more than 50,000 emergency operations over a three year period, starting in 2005.
It is believed that slightly more than a third of all procedures in the UK are classified as such.
Patients undergoing this type of procedure are eight times more likely to die than those undergoing elective surgery.
The outcomes of all patients monitored were tracked until 2012 for the study, which was published in the British Journal of Surgery.
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After adjusting for other risk factors, they found that the day a patient received surgery on had no effect on their survival.
Study author Dr Michael Gillies, said: ‘Emergency surgery is associated with far greater risks than elective surgery.
‘So it is reassuring to find that patients in Scotland are receiving the same high standards of care throughout the week.’
The ‘weekend effect’ that is said to make surgery on Saturday or Sunday riskier has been blamed on a lack of skilled senior staff.
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has previously cited evidence of a ‘weekend effect’ in his attempt to push for a seven-day NHS
Senior doctors – consultants – are rarely present at weekends and there are no staff on hand to carry out x-rays, blood tests or other vital scans.
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has previously cited evidence of the issue in his attempt to push for a seven-day NHS.
Data of more than 16.3 million patient admissions, collected by the health service and released in October, backed up his claims.
They showed those brought in for operations over the weekend were 15 per cent more likely to die within 30 days.
And Sir Bruce Keogh, medical director of the NHS, once calculated that 11,000 deaths a year are down to the ‘weekend effect’.
University of Manchester researchers previously found that rates are only higher at weekends only because the most sick patients are admitted.
While Oxford University experts found last May that discrepancies in death rates are down to differences in the way they are recorded.
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