Risk of Dying from Operation is Greater on Friday

For all those of you who are calling their hospitals to re-schedule their surgery days, I wouldn't worry about it to much. The latest figures were compiled from over 4 million elective (planned) procedures conducted in NHS hospital in England between the years 2008 and 2011. From those 4 million, just over 27.5 thousand deaths were recorded. That's an overall mortality rate of 0.67%. Doesn't sound so bad now...huh?

However-Yes, there is a "However."-Researchers found that there is a significant risk of death as the week progresses. Patients who have their operation on Friday are 44% more likely to die within the next 30 days and patients who have their operations on Saturday are a staggering 82% more likely...showing evidence of the weekday effect. The causes of this weekday effect are still not known. You could say that surgeons get more dangerous as the week wears on but there is no evidence to support that. There is the fact that hospitals are overworked on the weekends and the 2 days after surgery are said to be the most critical. That would be a lot more plausible. Whatever the reason for these statistics, remember the findings still show a mortality rate of less than 1%.  We all know the risks of going under the knife and we accept that because the risk of dying is greater without surgery. Most of these deaths may have been inevitable.

 I shudder to think what the ambulance chasers will make of these figures. Even more frightening is how will they react to this?