Moving forwards with research on the “weekend effect”

Two articles published in The BMJ in 2015 on the “weekend effect” have sparked considerable debate in The BMJ and on social media. A number of previous studies have reported that hospital mortality is higher for patients admitted at weekends than for patients admitted on other days of the week. This higher mortality for patients admitted at weekends has also been found in studies carried out in other countries as well as in England’s NHS. However, the key question which this prior research has not answered is whether the higher mortality is “avoidable” and not simply due to the patients who are admitted on weekends having more complex health needs and a poorer health status than patients admitted on weekdays.

You can read the full article on BMJ Blogs.

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