Consultants told they will have to work weekends

HEALTH Secretary Jeremy Hunt will tell hospital consultants he is calling time on their freedom to opt out of weekend working today.

He will set a September deadline for the British Medical Association (BMA) to agree to a new consultants’ contract and threaten to impose new terms and conditions if a deal cannot be reached.

Mr Hunt will also promise an end to “extortionate” overtime rates which allow consultants to earn £200 an hour over and above an average £118,000 salary.

In a direct attack on the principal organisation representing the medical profession, he will accuse the BMA of being a “road block to reforms that will save lives”.

Mr Hunt will say: “Around 6,000 people lose their lives every year because we do not have a proper seven day service in hospitals.

“No one could possibly say that this was a system built around the needs of patients - and yet when I pointed this out to the BMA they told me to ‘get real.’ I simply say to the doctors union that I can give them 6,000 reasons why they, not I, need to ‘get real.’

“They are not remotely in touch with what their members actually believe. I have yet to meet a consultant who would be happy for their own family to be admitted at weekends or would not prefer to get test results back more quickly for their own patients.”