Medics compile list of names whose lives, they say, were put in danger because they were misled by Jeremy Hunt into thinking hospitals do not provide 24/7 care

Doctors are compiling a dossier of patients whose health they say has been endangered because the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has misled the public into thinking that hospitals do not provide 24/7 care.

They claim to have details of at least 14 cases in which patients who needed urgent medical attention delayed going to see a doctor at the weekend because statements by the health secretary made them believe the care would be inadequate due to a lack of senior medics on duty.

In one case a cancer patient in London was left paralysed after failing to attend emergency services last weekend because he believed government rhetoric about doctors not working anti-social hours. He finally sought help on Monday, they say.

Details of the case have not been released to protect patient confidentiality. But it is thought to have been included in a dossier of anonymised examples being put together by doctors as part of an increasingly bitter dispute with the government over their contracts and Hunt and David Cameron’s pledge that the NHS will have become much more of a seven-day service by 2020.

The doctors behind the dossier said such cases are the result of what they called “the Hunt effect”, namely that some patients are holding off seeking treatment at a weekend – including women who are about to give birth – because they think they will not be well cared for or even die as a result.

The campaign is the latest salvo in the battle between doctors, both junior and senior, and Hunt over his desire to see them work more routinely at weekends to help deliver the promised seven-day service.

Medics fear that a speech Hunt gave in July, in which he claimed that a lack of hospital consultants working at weekends means that “about 6,000 people lose their lives every year because we do not have a proper seven-day service in hospitals”, is deterring some patients from seeking help when they need it.

Making the case for consultants to give up their right not to work overnight or at weekends unless they chose to, Hunt added that: “You are 15% more likely to die if you are admitted on a Sunday compared to being admitted on a Wednesday.”

Surveys shows that the vast majority of hospital doctors already work overnight and at weekends, either in hospital or on-call, especially in urgent and emergency care medicine where patients need constant attention in case their health deteriorates.

Dr Roshana Mehdian, an orthopaedic registrar, has criticised Hunt for peddling “irresponsible propaganda” that is having “disastrous consequences”. Another doctor, Emma Baker, tweeted Hunt: “You have made people believe the NHS is unsafe on the weekend #thehunteffect is killing people #nhs.”

The survey is being led by Dr Hoong-Wei Gan, a clinical research fellow at University College London and registrar at Great Ormond Street children’s hospital NHS foundation trust.

He said: “We are seeking to independently collect data on the effect of the Jeremy Hunt’s statements regarding the lack of 24/7 services on patient safety. Numerous anecdotal reports have now emerged regarding patients deliberately delaying their attendance in hospital due to scaremongering from Mr Hunt and his colleagues that hospital services do not run 24/7.”

A paediatric registrar at a London hospital told the Guardian that Hunt’s suggestion about out-of-hours care was “inaccurate and harmful”. He cited the recent example of the acute anxiety it had prompted in an expectant mother.

He said: “I was recently involved in counselling an expectant mother of twins. There were some signs that her babies may be born slightly early. She was terrified that if her babies were to be born at the evening or weekend, there would not be enough equipment or staff to help them if they needed resuscitation at birth.”

A senior registrar at a major London teaching hospital, who asked to remain anonymous, said she had come across pregnant women who refuse to be induced over the weekend because of concerns about staffing levels over the weekend, despite doctors concerns’ about their wellbeing and the health of their unborn children.

She said: “Every shift, every clinic, I am having to inform at least one patient that the department is open 24/7, and runs with the same staffing levels, day or night.”

She added: “The refusal of this government and Jeremy Hunt in particular to acknowledge this will be potentially disastrous in my specialty, where hours and even minutes can mean the difference between life and death for mothers and their babies, as women are frightened into not attending hospital because of a perceived lack of staff to care for them.”

Katya Certic, a paediatric registrar and contributor to the Guardian’s healthcare network, said she had not personally experienced examples of the Hunt effect but had been told of several examples by colleagues.

She said: “This emerging trend is worrying. We have a duty of care to our patients to investigate this further and correct the dangerous misinformation patients have been given by the government. If people don’t seek medical help when they’re acutely unwell, they are putting their lives at risk.

“It is imperative that the public be made aware, in no uncertain terms, that we are there for them, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and will be as long as there’s an NHS.”

Another doctor, a general surgery registrar at a large teaching hospital, offered “further evidence of the detrimental effect the political rhetoric from Mr Hunt and his colleagues is having on members of the British public.

“Irrespective of the political climate, when faced with a patient who has clearly delayed seeking medical attention, it is our duty to ask why. Never before in my working career have I been met with the responses I have heard this week. There are two common themes which stand out. Firstly, that consultants ‘do not work weekends’, and the NHS ‘does not provide a weekend service’. Secondly, that patients are much more likely to die at weekends.”

Patients who are accessing NHS care are more likely to seek help at a hospital on a Saturday or Sunday, whereas regular users are already aware that there are “comprehensive weekend services”, he added.

“As doctors we are well aware of the serious and potentially fatal consequences ill-advised or [ill]-communicated instructions to our patients can have. Mr Hunt, or his advisers, should have thought through their approach with more care before using it as a manipulative media strategy. They now have blood on their hands, and we are providing the evidence.”

The Department of Health declined to respond to the claim that Hunt has wrongly portrayed what NHS services are available throughout the week.

A spokeswoman said: “There is clear clinical evidence that standards of care are not uniform across the week, including from [NHS England medical director] Prof Sir Bruce Keogh and the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges.

“The NHS has that in common with healthcare systems around the world. But the government is determined to tackle the problem with the central objective of improving care for patients.”