Weekend effect: The row that set the NHS against Jeremy Hunt

Analysis: The former health secretary's fight to lead the country can hardly be more bruising than the feud with junior doctors that defined his tenure

The bitter row over junior doctors’ contracts, which sparked the first all-out strike in NHS history, has left deep scars for a generation of medics and an indelible legacy for prime ministerial hopeful Jeremy Hunt.

In the largest study to date of the phenomenon known as the “weekend effect” UK researchers again found little sign that poor care is behind increased death rates for people who go into hospital on Saturday or Sunday.

The weekend effect made national headlines after a 2015 study in the BMJ identified that patients admitted to hospital between Friday and Monday were 15 per cent more likely to die within 30 days than patients admitted on a Wednesday.