Hunt dismisses BMJ editor’s claims that he misused weekend mortality data

England’s health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has dismissed concerns raised by The BMJ’s editor in chief that he misrepresented research published in the journal to justify his drive to implement seven day NHS services for patients.

Fiona Godlee wrote to Hunt in October about an article in The BMJ that found that 11 000 more people die each year within 30 days of admission to hospital on a Friday, Saturday, Sunday, or Monday than on other days of the week.1 2 She said that Hunt had repeatedly told MPs and the public that these excess deaths were due to poor staffing at weekends, despite the article offering no explanation for the excess mortality.

“This clearly implies that you believe these …