Health secretary says those who work more than 56 hours a week are paid what is known in the NHS as ‘danger money’ - but doctors refute the term

Junior doctors have expressed their anger at the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, for claiming they are paid “danger money” when they work more than the legal limits.

Doctors took to social media to say they had never heard the phrase used in the NHS and about 30 contacted the Guardian saying they objected to his characterisation of them being paid to do unsafe work.

The row broke out after Hunt said the term was a colloqualism used in the NHS to describe penalties paid by hospitals to their doctors who worked more than an average of 56 hours a week over a six-month period.

In a bid to put an end to protests and the threat of a strike by junior doctors, he made a firm guarantee that those who work within the legal limits will see not see their salaries cut under his new contract.



However, he acknowledged that a small minority could see their pay fall if they worked longer than this, saying the payment of “danger money” was not safe.

“There’s a very small minority of doctors who will be working more than an average of 56 hours and at the moment they get paid what’s called colloquially in the NHS ‘danger money’,” he told the BBC.

“We think that’s wrong. Actually, we shouldn’t be allowing that to happen. It’s not safe for patients and, frankly, I’m not sure it’s safe for doctors, either. But what we are saying is that for the vast majority of doctors who are working within the legal limit there will be no pay cut. We’ll make sure that happens.”

It is understood that only hundreds out of the 53,000 doctors work such long hours that they receive these payments.

Hunt is trying to get rid of the extra payments as part of the controversial changes to contracts, but critics are concerned that hospitals will no longer have an incentive to keep their doctors’ hours within the legal limits.

The remarks about “danger money” have infuriated junior doctors at a time when the government is trying to defuse its row with the profession.



Dr Alexander Gates, a junior doctor at Severn Deanery and a local BMA representative, said he had never heard of the phrase and objected to Hunt “conjouring up an image of tired, dangerous medics turning the patient experience into a risky board game”.

He said a survey of 1,202 doctors on Facebook had “revealed 99.7% of responders have never heard of the term ‘danger money’.”

Rob Irons, a registrar in geriatric and acute general internal medicine, said: “I have been a qualified doctor for five years and I confirm I have never heard the expression ‘danger money’ used in relation to a doctor’s pay. I get the feeling Mr Hunt just makes things up to generate a soundbite.”

The British Medical Association is to shortly ballot its members on strike action. It was initially positive about Hunt’s firm guarantee that doctors would not see their pay fall. But Dr Johann Malawana, BMA junior doctor committee chair, said: “Just hours after promising that no junior doctor would have a pay cut, Jeremy Hunt has now admitted that those working the longest hours would in fact see their pay fall.

“Jeremy Hunt has repeatedly shifted his position and this is another example of the health secretary claiming one thing, but the reality being quite different.

“It makes it impossible for junior doctors to trust the government when they have been caught out trying to gloss over the facts.”

