• Cardiac Arrest
• Mortality

UK readers will be well aware of the bitter controversy that has sprung from differing interpretations of data that seem to show increased in-hospital mortality at weekends. A contractual dispute between trainee doctors and the government has its roots in the disputed claim that improving weekend junior medical staffing will reduce mortality.

The literature applies mainly to adults. To see any weekend effect in child mortality rates, which are so much lower, would require huge numbers. This has now been achieved, at least partially, in a study …