“Weekend effect” is not reduced by clinical standards designed to tackle it, study finds

Clinical standards designed to reduce mortality at the weekend have not made any overall difference, researchers have found.

In a paper published in the Emergency Medicine Journal, researchers from the University of Manchester said that four NHS priority standards for emergency care have not reduced excess deaths on Saturdays and Sundays.1

The four standards were originally developed in 2013 by the NHS Services, Seven Days a Week Forum. They were introduced in 2015 and form part of the government’s aim to reduce the “weekend effect”—when patients admitted to hospital at a weekend have greater mortality than patients admitted on weekdays—through increased …