NHS 7 day provision of routine services

Posted 17/12/2012

It has been reported that a group is being commissioned to consider why the NHS, throughout England, is unable to provide routine services at the weekend. The group will include health providers, patient representatives and others outside of the health service. Currently the NHS provides emergency services to patients at the weekend but does not provide a ‘full service’. There are many routine operations and services that are limited to being provided between Monday and Friday. Much of this follows on from recent reporting about the greater incidences of death if a patient is admitted to hospital on a Sunday. It could be argued that there is a multitude of potential causes for this but many believe that it is linked to the absence of senior doctors over the weekend.Ben Ward, a clinical negligence solicitor at Ashtons Legal, comments: “The NHS is facing extremely difficult financial times and logic makes one wonder whether this is really the correct time to be concentrating on a full 7 day service. Patients have managed for years having routine procedures undertaken during the working week and is this really the correct time to be stretching NHS resources? As a child we are taught to walk before we can run. It would therefore seem to me that before attempting to provide a ‘full service’ to patients over a 7 day week, the NHS first needs to address the issue of emergency cover at weekends, the objective being that all patients admitted at the weekend have the same chance of survival as those admitted during the working week”.