Letters17 January 2012Impact of the “July Effect” on Patient OutcomesLouella Vaughan, DPhil, Derek Bell, MD, and Graeme McAlisterLouella Vaughan, DPhilFrom Imperial College London, London SW10 9NH, United Kingdom, and Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH2 1JQ, United Kingdom.Search for more papers by this author, Derek Bell, MDFrom Imperial College London, London SW10 9NH, United Kingdom, and Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH2 1JQ, United Kingdom.Search for more papers by this author, and Graeme McAlisterFrom Imperial College London, London SW10 9NH, United Kingdom, and Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH2 1JQ, United Kingdom.Search for more papers by this authorAuthor, Article, and Disclosure Informationhttps://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-156-2-201201170-00021 SectionsAboutFull TextPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail TO THE EDITOR:We read with interest Young and colleagues' article (1) and the accompanying editorial (2) on the “July effect,” with a view to our own recent trans-Atlantic experience. Just as July is regarded with trepidation in the United States, so is the first Wednesday in August in the United Kingdom—the traditional changeover day for an estimated 50 000 junior doctors.Following the recent work of one of our authors (3), which demonstrated a significant increase in mortality on the first Wednesday in August compared with the last Wednesday in July, we took a survey of perceptions of medical staff ...
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