BOURNEMOUTH and Christchurch hospitals have been highlighted as having worrying numbers of weekend deaths.

Figures analysed by Dr Foster Intelligence found that 12 of 146 health trusts were classed as “higher than expected” for weekend deaths, including the Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch hospitals.

Health professionals have blamed a lack of senior doctors on duty, coupled with poor access to diagnostic services, for the rises.

But the Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said the report was based on 2011/12 and, once data from its Macmillan palliative care unit was removed, it fell within the expected range.

Dr Mary Armitage, the trust’s medical director, said: “Firstly is the fact that we are one of a handful of acute hospitals to provide specialist palliative care services. This means more patients will appropriately spend the end of their life in our hospital because of the presence of this facility. For much of England these facilities are not part of the acute hospital.

“The second is the lack of alternatives within Bournemouth, and the surrounding community, for patients who do not wish to spend the end of their life in a hospital setting.”

She said the trust now ensured that a consultant physician was on site 8am to 8pm at weekends and on call outside of those hours. It predicted that the 2012/13 figures would be within the expected range.

In their statement, the trust said: "This information was published originally in November / December 2012 and the figures used in the Dr Foster Hospital guide report are from 2011/2012 and as such are over a year out of date.

"Dr Foster confirmed that the RBCH weekend mortality was actually within the expected range, once data from the Trust’s palliative care unit (Macmillan Unit) was removed."

Dr Armitage said: “It is important to reassure the public that our hospitals continue to provide excellent patient care. A detailed review has revealed that two factors influence the perceived higher mortality at weekends.

“As part of our continuing efforts to improve patient care we always look for ways we can make changes and improvements.

We had proactively taken action well before the Dr Foster report was published and since August 2012 we have increased consultant physician presence on site over weekends so that there is now one consultant physician on site from 8am – 8pm Saturday and Sunday as well as on-call cover outside of these hours.

This allows immediate senior review of sick patients, as well as the systematic ward rounds of admitted patients and improved continuity of care. It also results in improved supervision and training for junior medical staff. We continue to look for further changes and improvements across all areas, for example regarding the workload to junior doctors out of hours.

“Current indications are that the HSMR data for 2012/2013 will show that we are not an outlier for weekend mortality this year, and we believe that these changes are having an impact.”

Health care consumer body Healthwatch Dorset encouraged patients to report experiences at healthwatchdorset.co.uk or via Twitter on @hwatchdorset.

Bournemouth East MP Tobias Ellwood has scheduled a meeting with trust chief executive Tony Spotswood.

Mr Ellwood said: “This is a particular concern with the merger (with Poole) taking place as well. I think we’ve been fortunate to have excellent services at Bournemouth and Christchurch hospitals, so my first reaction was surprise, but I’m not going to jump to any conclusions until I have had a chance to speak to the chief executive and find out their reaction as to whether it’s linked to less staff on duty and so forth.”

Poole and Dorset trusts were both classed as being within the expected range.

Last week, the Daily Echo reported that the Competition Commission had blocked a proposed merger between the Royal Bournemouth and Poole trusts, saying patients could face a lack of choice of services.

Since then, a revised assessment from the trust of the customer benefits it says will arise from the merger has now been published by the commission.

They include maintaining the current configuration of an obstetric and midwife-delivered service at Poole and a midwife-delivered service at Bournemouth, or consolidating the midwifery service on a single site co-located with the obstetric and neonatal care services at either Poole or Bournemouth.

Haematology could be maintained at both sites, while A&E could remain at both sites, with one possibly closing overnight, or maintaining both, with one focussing on minor injuries but with the capability to deal with medical emergencies.

Acute surgery could be kept at both hospitals, or be concentrated at one.

A single dedicated rota of cardiologists could be created for both hospitals, which the trusts say would give better cover by senior medical staff.

The new proposals also say that there would be financial benefits that would allow Poole to avoid the failure regime and allow both to invest in patient care.