Jeremy Hunt claims junior doctors have been 'wound up' by the British Medical Association over contracts

The Health Secretary has pledged no doctors will be worse off

The Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt (Getty)

Junior doctors have been deliberately and unnecessarily provoked by their professional body the British Medical Association, the Health Secretary has claimed.

Jeremy Hunt criticised the BMA for creating “unnecessary anger” amongst medics over the controversial renegotiation of junior doctor contracts.

Over the past few months junior doctors have taken to the streets and joined the BMA en masse over concerns that patient safety could be compromised by new rotas that would see their already long hours stretched even further.

The physicians have also been warned that the payments for working anti-social hours could be scaled back because of a redefinition of what constitutes anti-social working.

After months of building pressure and anger, Mr Hunt said on Wednesday that the Government would commit to making sure that no junior doctors would not be worse off under the new contracts.

“Today I can confirm that not a single junior doctor working within the legal limits for hours will have their pay cut because this is about patient care and not saving money,” he told MPs.

“This is something, incidentally, that I made clear was a possible outcome of negotiations to the BMA at the beginning of September in an attempt to encourage them to return to the negotiating table.

“But rather than coming and negotiating they chose to wind up their own members and create a huge amount of unnecessary anger.”

Mr Hunt made the comments during an opposition day debate called by the Labour Party in the House of Commons.

He has previously said junior doctors were “misled” by the BMA.

On Saturday 17 October medics filled central London streets in protest at the plans, with an estimated 20,000 showing up. Others gathered in Nottingham and Belfast.