Research has identified higher mortality for patients admitted as emergencies at the weekend compared with emergency admissions during the week.

Research from the Dr Foster Unit has identified higher mortality for patients admitted as emergencies at the weekend compared with emergency admissions during the week. Using routinely collected hospital administrative data, in-hospital deaths for all emergency inpatient admissions were examined to all public acute hospitals in England for 2005/2006. Odds of death were calculated for admissions at the weekend compared to admissions during the week, adjusted for age, sex, socioeconomic deprivation, comorbidity and diagnosis.

Of a total of 4 317 866 emergency admissions, 215 054 in-hospital deaths were found with an overall crude mortality rate of 5.0% (5.2% for all weekend admissions and 4.9% for all weekday admissions). The overall adjusted odds of death for all emergency admissions was 10% higher (OR 1.10, 95% CI 1.08 to 1.11) in those patients admitted at the weekend compared with patients admitted during a weekday (p<0.001).

Dr Paul Aylin, the senior author of the study, said this was clearly a significant number of people. "We need to get to the bottom of what this means.

"Staffing levels are often lower at weekends, with fewer senior medical staff around, and some specialist services are less available. We believe this may be contributing to the increase in mortality rates on Saturdays and Sundays but we would like to see more research.

• Weekend mortality for emergency admissions. A large, multicentre study. Qual Saf Health Care. Jan 2010