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Jeremy Hunt’s claim that more people die in hospital at the weekend – the cornerstone of his fight with junior doctors – has been exposed as bogus.

The Health Secretary has repeatedly said he has to impose a new contract to tackle “higher weekend death rates”.

And he insists that can only be done by extending doctors’ working weeks.

But a major study has blown his claims apart, proving that patients are no more likely to die than those admitted on weekdays.

Experts who studied hospital admissions across all seven days agreed with Mr Hunt that, of those given a bed over the weekend, a higher percentage died.

But they found that was because only serious cases were being admitted.

(Image: PA)

Far fewer non life-threatening cases were referred to hospitals on a Saturday or Sunday – especially from GPs. Prof Matt Sutton, who led the research at the University of Manchester, said there was no issue with weekend care, and individuals faced no extra risk of dying.

And he said the Health Secretary’s drive to extend services at weekends was “not going to save lives”.

The study looked at all 12.5 million emergency admissions to English hospitals over 11 months.

Read more:Hunt told off for playing with his phone in Commons

Prof Sutton said: “If you seek emergency A&E care on a weekend, there is no change in the risk to your mortality.

“Patients with non-serious illnesses are not admitted, so those who are admitted are on average sicker than during the week and more likely to die – regardless of the quality of care they receive.

“The NHS has rushed to fix a perceived problem that further research shows does not exist.”

Mr Hunt used previous research to back his claimed “weekend effect” and as a reason for rewriting contracts – making it cheaper for hospitals to cover weekend rotas.

The BMA said: “The government needs to look at its rhetoric and the way it is attacking the medical profession.”