Patients admitted to hospital on a Sunday are twice as likely to die as those admitted on Mondays, figures for England suggest.
Analysis of admissions to English hospitals in 2010/11 show 1.4 per cent of patients admitted on a Monday died but the figure rose to 2.8 per cent for those admitted on a Sunday.
The death rate for Saturday admissions was 2.5 per cent, whereas for weekdays the figures were 1.4 per cent or 1.3 per cent.
The figures are based on more than 15 million admissions to English NHS hospitals and NHS-commissioned activity in the independent sector, including emergencies and elective care.
The overall figure showed that 228,986 of those admitted to hospital died (1.5 per cent) and 14,839,889 (98.5 per cent) were discharged alive.
Just 1.3 per cent of those admitted on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays and 1.4 per cent of Friday admissions died.
Health minister Anna Soubry gave the figures in a parliamentary written answer.
She said: "It is important that people have access to services that are consistently safe and high quality every day of the week.
"The Royal Colleges and specialist societies are leading the way on how to do this through the development of standards and guidance, and the Department will work with these organisations and others to make this happen across the National Health Service."
A study in February this year, based on figures for 2009/10, suggested patients are 16% more likely to die if they are admitted on a Sunday than a Wednesday, and 11 per cent more likely to die if they are admitted on a Saturday.
Lead researcher Professor Domenico Pagano, from the University Hospital Birmingham Foundation Trust, added: "These results offer conclusive evidence that confirms previous reports of increased 30-day mortality risk for patients admitted to hospital with emergency conditions at the weekend compared with the rest of the week."
He said several reasons may be behind the findings, including that patients who are seriously ill can find themselves admitted on weekends.
If they were less ill, they would have had their admissions postponed until a week day.
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Prof Pagano also said reduced staffing and fewer senior doctors on duty as well as poor access to diagnostic tests at weekends could have an effect.
