Why TODAY is ‘most dangerous day’ in NHS hospitals as Black Wednesday linked to 6% higher risk of death

EMBARGOED TO 0001 WEDNESDAY APRIL 15 File photo dated 18/01/23 of general view of staff on a NHS hospital ward at Ealing Hospital in London. NHS workers are suffering high levels of stress, leaving many reaching “breaking point”, according to a report. Unison said a survey of more than 19,000 employees including nurses, paramedics and occupational therapists in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland found that a third have taken time off for mental health issues in the past year. Issue date: Wednesday April 15, 2026. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Jeff Moore/PA Wire Credit: PA IF there was ever a bad time to end up in hospital, today is it – according to experts. The first Wednesday in August, controversially nicknamed Black Wednesday, marks the day thousands of newly qualified resident doctors take up their posts. It also marks the changeover, when all resident doctors, formerly known as junior doctors, move to different departments. The theory is that inexperienced new doctors may be more likely to make errors – raising the risk of harm to patients. Sign up for the Health newsletter Thank you! One major study by scientists at Imperial College London found that patients who were admitted on the first Wednesday of August were between six and eight per cent more likely to die than for those admitted the previous week. The research, published in 2009, assessed nearly 300,000 patients in 175 hospital trusts between 2000 and 2008. Professor David Strain, an expert in cardiometabolic health at the University of Exeter told the Daily Mail: “There’s a lot that new resident doctors need to learn in their first few weeks. “For example, you aren’t taught in medical school how to lift patients and put them into a bed. “You’ll also need to have refresher courses of the really important skills, such as resuscitating patients, which these doctors have not performed in real life before. Reading a textbook is very different to doing the job.” England is also in the grip of its fifth heatwave of 2026 with large parts of the country now officially in a drought. Most read in Health The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said the number of excess deaths caused by hot weather is likely to break the record, with 2,877 already so far this year. In recent weeks, several hospitals have been forced to cancel operations, blood tests and scans after hot weather caused some hospital equipment to become unusable. Blood samples are also more likely to degrade in the heat which could lead to false-positive or false-negative results. But, experts claim that, over the years, Black Wednesday has changed, largely due to safety concerns over the changeover period. Resident doctors, who typically undergo at least five years of medical training before qualifying, receive more supervision, they argue. Since 2012, resident doctors have been required to undergo a four-day shadowing course, where they watch qualified medics go about their job on the wards. Prior to the course launching nationwide, trials in Bristol found that it reduced mistakes by junior doctors by 50 per cent over their first four months. One 2021 study also found that there was “no significant difference in overall 30-day mortality, length of stay, time to procedure or time from procedure to discharge” during “changeover week”. Published in The Annals of The Royal College of Surgeons of England, it assessed data on patients admitted for general surgery during the “changeover week” between 2005 and 2016. Other recent studies into the “changeover effect” have mainly focused on patients in North America and France. They also concluded that there was no increase in mortality but one French study published in 2017 identified higher readmission rates and longer length of stay. Comment now