Evening Standard/BMG Research Poll: Over half the public feel more worried about being rushed into hospital at a weekend

An exclusive BMG Research poll, commissioned by the Evening Standard, reveals that over half of the British public say they are more concerned if they or a member of their family were admitted to hospital at the weekend.

The Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has previously claimed that understaffing of hospitals at weekends may cause the death of up to 11,000 patients a year. Public Health England has estimated that “excess in-hospital deaths associated with admission on a Saturday or Sunday compared to Wednesday is just below 6,000“.

However, the NHS’s medical director, Prof. Sir Bruce Keogh has reiterated his view that it is not possible to say for sure how many patients die avoidably as a result of the so-called “weekend-effect”, which he and other experts have found...continue reading here.