This story was first published in digitalhealth.net
BMA calls on government to explain seven-day NHS funding
The British Medical Association (BMA) has called on the government to fully explain how it will fund plans for an expansion in seven-day NHS services and to stop misleading the public about weekend death statistics.
The move follows questions from opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn at Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) about whether the Department of Health (DoH) would publish analysis of the costs of a seven day service.
Corbyn also asked Prime Minister David Cameron if the government has been ‘misleading’ the public about claims of 6,000 extra deaths in the NHS over the weekend.
Reports have emerged that figures quoted by the conservative government and Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt regarding excess weekend deaths are misleading, with the author of the research paper where the original figure comes from saying he is unhappy with how the figure is being used.
Tensions between the BMA and the DoH are running high amid the ongoing dispute over the junior doctors contract, with three more 48 hour strikes scheduled in the coming months.
BMA chair Mark Porter has said that Hunt’s misrepresentation of research data has angered doctors by undermining public confidence in the quality of weekend care.
He said: “This yet again calls into question figures used by the health secretary in his bid to push through more seven-day services across the UK, without extra funding or staffing.
“The fact is, doctors work around the clock, seven days a week and they do so under their existing contracts. If the government want more seven-day services then, rather than using figures designed to worry patients, they should be outlining where the extra doctors, nurses and diagnostic staff, and the extra investment needed to deliver them, will come from.”
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