Roll forward to 2015 when my wife was an inpatient in a relatively small district general hospital in Surrey. She was an inpatient for 15 weeks so I got a good opportunity to experience how the hospital operated. And I soon formed the view that never need hospital care at weekends because if provided at all it will be second rate at best.

Inevitably, one Sunday some junior doctor on call for the whole hospital seemingly, discovered that her serum potassium level was almost fatally raised. Clearly it had been raised for some time but had not been noticed or acted upon. Some attempt was made to take immediate remedial measures but when I left her at the end of visiting time I had the ominous feeling that I might not see her alive again !!!

In fact when I returned to visit her early the next morning she was alive but told me that during the night when a young doctor and nurse were trying to get the potassium level down she was asked out of the blue whether she wanted to be resuscitated ! This issue had never been raised before so you can imagine how frightening this question was for her.

In fact over the next few days with appropriate measures her potassium level returned to normal and all was well.

But this episode should not have happened and would not had the hospital operated a full service for seven days a week rather than five !!  There is strong recent statistical evidence that weekend mortality raties are indeed raised so the need for remedial action is clear !  No delay must be allowed