Prospects for seven day working in the NHS: get Monday to Friday working properly first

Patients get sick seven days a week so why do we still have a five day service in the NHS? The secretary of state for health, Jeremy Hunt, has been advocating for a proper 24/7 service for a while, pointing to worrying statistics that patients admitted and treated in hospitals at the weekends have a higher chance of dying than during the working week, because there are fewer staff on duty. Elsewhere in the service sector, from a consumer point of view, we have long been used to extended opening hours to meet our purchasing, banking, communications, and leisure requirements and to suit our availability, so why not in the NHS too, in order to meet our healthcare needs? Also, it seems such a waste of resource to have expensive diagnostic equipment lying fallow for two days every week when demand exceeds supply.