The Hugh Cairn’s Surgical Society is delighted to welcome Professor Nick Freemantle, Interim Director of UCL Comprehensive Clinical Trials Unit and lead author of the 2015 weekend mortality paper to talk about the evidence behind the presence of the Weekend Effect and what we can do about it.
Nick Freemantle is one of the country’s foremost statisticians and epidemiologists, holding a number of positions at the University of Birmingham and University College London before accepting his current role as Interim Director of UCL Comprehensive Clinical Trials Unit. His work focusses on the application of complex statistical models to very large data sets, and he has published over 350 academic papers in his 25-year long career. In 2015 he received criticism from some clinicians when his 2015 BMJ article ‘Increased mortality associated with weekend hospital admission: a case for expanded seven day services?’ was used by Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt to support controversial healthcare reforms.