Patients admitted to Lewisham And Greenwich NHS Trust hospitals at the weekend are more likely to die than those admitted during the week, according to NHS figures.

It is widely accepted that there is a "weekend effect" at hospitals, where death rates rise on Saturday and Sunday.

Since 2014, the NHS has published data showing the difference in mortality during the weekend and the "midweek" period, which runs from Tuesday to Thursday.

The NHS measures mortality as a ratio between weekend and midweek patients, and found the death rate for all patients was higher at the weekend in Lewisham And Greenwich NHS Trust hospitals.

Of these, patients who were admitted as an emergency were also more likely to die on Saturday and Sunday.

However the data does not show exactly how much more likely a patient is to die.

In 2015, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt attempted to address the "weekend effect" with the introduction of seven-day working contracts for doctors, which led to the first all-out doctors' strike in NHS history.

Some doctors and academics have criticised the government's flagship policy for putting extra pressure on staff without providing better patient outcomes, as well as questioning the data on which it is based.

Rachel Meacock, an academic at the University of Manchester, co-authored a paper which found that mortality rates were higher at the weekend, but only because fewer patients were admitted, and these patients tended to be sicker.

"There is bias in the NHS results, because they are dividing a higher number of deaths by a lower number of admissions", Meacock said.

"The whole policy was clearly politically motivated, and our research has shown that it has had no impact on the weekend effect. All it's done is annoy doctors, scare patients about going to hospital at the weekend, and cost the NHS a lot of money."

Commenting on the data, Dr Chaand Nagpaul, chair of the British Medical Association Council, said: "Doctors are committed to providing the best possible treatment to patients when they fall ill and the BMA supports high quality consistent patient care across the week.

"What this data appears to show is that the issue of weekend mortality is complex and there are many reasons why we may see trends shown in these figures. For example, we know that more seriously ill patients are likely to be admitted to hospital during these hours, so better evidence is needed before making any assumptions on how to address this seeming weekend effect.

"If the government is serious about its commitment to a seven-day health service especially given the current workload pressures within the NHS it must publish a fully-funded model on how it plans to deliver this, backed up with reliable evidence. It must also take a holistic, joined-up approach, from general practice, right through to social care, noting the implications it will have across the healthcare system."

By Niamh McIntyre, Data Reporter