Commenting on a new study released today in the journal Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Dr Andrew Goddard, Royal College of Physicians director of medical workforce, said:
This study provides yet more evidence that patients in hospital are not cared for so well at weekends, and reinforces last week’s call from the RCP for consultant physicians caring for very sick patients to be in the hospital for 12 hours a day, every day, including weekends. The RCP, with other organisations, will shortly be launching a toolkit for hospitals to assess, treat and manage upper gastrointestinal bleeding, which will help to prevent unnecessary deaths in the future.
- The study shows that the higher mortality for patients with upper gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding at weekends and public holidays could not be explained by measures of case mix and may indicate a possible impact of reduced staffing levels and delays to endoscopy at weekends in some hospitals.
- Reference: L. A. Button, S. E. Roberts,!, P. A. Evans, M. J. Goldacre, A. Akbari, R. Dsilva, S. Macey & J. G. Williams, Hospitalized incidence and case fatality for upper gastrointestinal bleeding,Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics, 2011; 33: 64–76
- Related RCP press releases:
- RCP survey reveals need for more trained doctors at weekends, Thursday 2 December 2010
- Patients deserve better out of hours care says RCP President, Thursday 2 December 2010