PATIENTS admitted to hospitals in Bradford and Airedale at the weekend are more likely to die than those getting medical help during the week, according to NHS figures.

NHS Digital measures mortality as a ratio between weekend and midweek patients, and found the death rate for all patients was higher at the weekend in Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust hospitals, which includes Bradford Royal Infirmary and St Luke's Hospital, and Airedale NHS Foundation Trust hospitals.

Patients who were admitted as an emergency were also more likely to die on Saturday and Sunday.

In 2015, health secretary Jeremy Hunt attempted to address the "weekend effect" with the introduction of seven-day working contracts for doctors, which led to the first all-out doctors' strike in NHS history.

Some doctors and academics have criticised the Government's flagship policy for putting extra pressure on staff without providing better patient outcomes, as well as questioning the data on which it is based.

Rachel Meacock, an academic at the University of Manchester, co-authored a paper which found that mortality rates were higher at the weekend, but only because fewer patients were admitted, and these patients tended to be sicker.

Imran Hussain, MP for Bradford East, said: "“Greater mortality rates on weekends are a cause for concern and there are challenging questions that must be asked on what more can be done to prevent avoidable deaths, questions that I have put to the Chief Executive of the Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.

“Whilst there are a range of factors at play in higher weekend mortality rates, I have no doubt that the Government’s underfunding of our health service has played a significant role, and the Health Secretary was wrong to try and shift blame for his funding failure on to hardworking NHS staff as an excuse to bring in new contracts.”

John Grogan, MP for Keighley, said: "At first sight these statistics are concerning and I will raise them at my first meeting with the new chief executive of Airedale NHS Foundation Trust, Brendan Brown.

"On the other hand, a recent study in the British Medical Association Journal suggested a higher proportion of patients admitted to hospital at the weekend arrived by ambulance, which researchers say is an important indication of being more seriously ill.

"In other words patients admitted at the weekend are on average more ill than those who would present themselves to appointments during the week.

"The British Medical Association research found that patients arriving by ambulance had much more severe problems with with a mortality rate of 5.5 per cent compared with 0.8 per cent to patients who did not arrive by ambulance."

A spokeswoman for Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: “The mortality rate in Bradford is overall significantly lower than the national average.

"We know that patients admitted at the weekend have a higher rate of death but this is still no higher than the national average and the reasons for illness and admission to hospital are many and complex."

Karl Mainprize, Medical Director of Airedale NHS Foundation Trust, said: "The outcome for our patients is fundamentally important to us and nationally available data shows that Airedale has a lower than expected mortality rate when compared nationally.

"All the deaths reviewed demonstrate Airedale has no avoidable deaths, regardless of when the patient was admitted.

“In addition I would like to reassure our local community that if patients become seriously ill, whether during the day, at night or at a weekend, we have staff available around the clock to care for them.”