She also called for NHS workers who 'go AWOL' by striking to be sacked

Woman claimed that doctors only work long hours to can get overtime pay

A Question Time audience member was furiously booed after she accused junior doctors of deliberately working long hours in order to claim more overtime payments.

The woman, a former A&E worker, claimed that doctors 'choose' to work up to 80 hours a week during the latest episode of the BBC current affairs show, which was filmed in Exeter.

But other people in the audience reacted negatively to her furious rant, booing and trying to drown her out.

Rant: A woman in the Question Time audience last night launched an impassioned argument criticising junior doctors for claiming overtime pay

The woman's intervention came during a discussion of the junior doctors' strike on Question Time last night, featuring politicians such as Liam Fox and Paddy Ashdown.

Doctors have staged a series of walkouts over Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt's decision to impose a new contract designed to encourage them to work more nights and weekends.

A junior doctor in the Exeter audience argued that the public is behind the strike, only to be interrupted by the woman who blamed the dispute on the doctors themselves.

She said that despite their claims of being overstretched by working extra-long shifts, they only work more than 50 hours if they opt in to do so in order to get more money.

'I used to work in A&E, and before you do extra hours you opt in, with any job now there's a scheme, you either opt in or out,' she said.

Passion: The woman argued that doctors should be sacked if they fail to turn up to work because of strikes

Angry: She said that doctors only work long hours if they explicitly opt in to do so

'They do 79 hours because they push at the weekend for more money - I'm sorry, it is true, because they want overtime.

'Nobody can force anyone to do more than 50 hours a week, they choose to physically do it. They put the patients at risk themselves, it's all about money and it is wrong.'

As other audience members began to boo and looked incredulous, the woman went on to argue that doctors who go on strike should be fired for failing to fulfil their duties.

Do you know the Question Time audience member? Please email hugo.gye@mailonline.co.uk or call 0203 615 3594 Advertisement

'Anybody who goes AWOL and doesn't turn up for a shift when they go on strike should be sacked,' she said. 'If you were in the military, you'd get arrested for going AWOL.

'The NHS don't want them going off work, they are technically going AWOL - they are not turning up for their shifts, making people anxious by cancelling appointments.'

Several viewers at home also criticised the woman, including Labour MP Liz McInnes who said: 'I'm intrigued as to what that audience member did when she worked in A&E.

'She thinks the doctors just turned up to claim overtime?'

Danny Ashton suggested the woman had been planted in the audience, tweeting: 'Got to be a ringer, no way she wants striking doctors to be sacked.'

But others rushed to her defence - Andy Smith wrote on Twitter: 'Agree with the lady on Question Time about junior doctors: irresponsible for them to go on strike and push for greater pay.'

Panel: The incident took place during an episode of the show hosted by David Dimbleby and featuring (left to right) Tim Martin, Lord Ashdown, Liam Fox, Kate Hoey and Leanne Wood

Reaction: Many other members of the audience booed the arguments and some were visibly in disbelief

Host David Dimbleby asked Dr Fox - the former Defence Secretary who worked as a GP before entering Parliament - to respond to the woman's remarks.

But before he could, a young man in the audience embarked on a rant of his own, telling the Conservative MP: 'You're a traitor to your profession, you're an affront to medicine.'

Dr Fox, who supports the Government's NHS reforms, said: 'I don't think the doctors are just being greedy, I think there is a real problem moving from the system we had to a new one.'

The other members of last night's panel were Wetherspoon's boss Tim Martin, the anti-EU Labour MP Kate Hoey and Leanne Wood, leader of Plaid Cymru.

Junior doctors - i.e. all hospital doctors below the status of consultant - have staged high-profile strikes, with the next planned for next week, in a bid to force Mr Hunt to back down.

The new contracts would see basic pay rise while overtime payments for working evenings and weekends are cut.

The Government says the new scheme will encourage the NHS to move to seven-day care by making it more normal for doctors to do shifts outside the normal working week.

But the British Medical Association, which is leading the strikes, claims doctors will be overstretched under the new regime, endangering patients' safety.

A spokesman for the NHS Federation said today that the woman's claims about opting in to extra hours are correct - doctors can work no more than 48 hours a week on average unless they sign a document waiving their rights under the Working Time Directive.

'An employer cannot require a doctor to opt out, it is a purely voluntary act and the contract makes this very clear,' she added.