A senior Conservative MP has attacked Jeremy Hunt’s “entirely unreasonable” tactics in pursuit of an “unachievable” seven-day NHS, claiming he misrepresented evidence to win public support in his long-running dispute with junior doctors.

Revealing the depths of the Tory divide on the NHS, Dr Sarah Wollaston, the chair of the Commons health select committee, dismissed Hunt’s argument that more doctors working weekends would reduce hospital fatalities.

Writing for the Guardian, Wollaston warns that the health secretary’s decision to impose the unpopular new contract on England’s 45,000 junior doctors will not solve the problem of the higher death rates among patients.

The MP for Totnes said Hunt should instead have concentrated on ensuring more senior doctors spend more time in hospital at the weekend, that more nurses are on duty and that diagnostic services such as CT scans are more readily available.

Ministers’ tactics have inflamed tensions during the long-running dispute, risking “an exodus” of young medics whom the NHS desperately needs, she wrote.

“It was perfectly reasonable for the government to try to tackle the higher mortality at 30 days [after admission] for those admitted to hospital at weekends but entirely unreasonable to blunder on asserting that the new contract is the answer.”

However, Wollaston, who was writing in a personal capacity, added: “Ministers are undermining their case and inflaming tensions by misquoting the evidence, which points more to the need to improve senior decision-making [by consultant doctors], nursing cover and rapid access to investigations at the weekends than to increase junior doctor cover. If the objective is to tackle excess weekend mortality at 30 days, the government should have followed the evidence and focused elsewhere.”

Wollaston – whose daughter is a junior doctor, though working in Australia – was also highly critical of both junior doctors and the British Medical Association, the doctors’ union.

She attacked the decision of junior doctors to carry out a “disastrous” full strike on 26 and 27 April, during which doctors will abstain from all types of care for the first time, including A&E, maternity services and emergency surgery.

Medics below the level of consultant have continued to work in those life-or-death settings during the three strikes earlier this year, and will do so again during the fourth walkout, which begins on Wednesday at 8am and will last for 48 hours. But there is widespread anxiety among doctors’ leaders and the leadership of the NHS that the all-out strike later in the month could endanger lives.

Although sympathetic to their case, Wollaston wrote: “Pressing ahead with a full walkout, however, will serve only to harden attitudes and solves nothing. Most importantly, it will be disastrous for patients. The BMA have no doubt calculated that people will blame the government more than themselves, but a strike which leaves patients without junior cover even for emergencies puts lives at risk. They cannot justify such drastic action by claiming to protect patients.”

Wollaston, who was a GP for 25 years before becoming an MP in 2010, also accused the BMA of making a major tactical blunder by not accepting the government’s final offer in February to resolve the dispute. Ministers had offered enough concessions for junior doctors to be able to claim victory, in her opinion, which is shared by other senior politicians and NHS bosses.

Her charge of “misquoting the evidence” is particularly serious for Hunt. It follows persistent claims by junior doctors that the health secretary has misrepresented research findings on the long-recognised “weekend effect” of higher death rates among patients admitted over the weekend. Hunt has been accused of misleading parliament and is the subject of a complaint to the Cabinet Office.

Wollaston, who is admired for her independence, also cast doubt on the viability of the government’s key election pledge to deliver a “truly seven-day NHS” by 2020, given the extent of NHS staff shortages and escalating financial problems. “A routine seven-day NHS is unachievable within the current workforce and financial pressures,” she said.

Labour sought to capitalise on Wollaston’s intervention. “This is a devastating attack on Jeremy Hunt’s handling of this dispute,” said Heidi Alexander, the shadow health secretary. “If the health secretary won’t listen to patient groups and medical leaders, surely he will listen to one of his own colleagues and rethink his approach?

“There is now a growing chorus of voices urging the government to stop wilfully misrepresenting medical research on weekend mortality and conflating contract reform with plans for a seven-day NHS.”

A BMA spokesperson defended junior doctors against Wollaston’s claims. “Sarah Wollaston’s comments show a complete disregard for the views of junior doctors who voted overwhelmingly for industrial action because the government is pursuing an approach that is damaging for the long term delivery of patient care and unfair on these doctors,” the spokesperson said.



“All doctors have patients as their number one priority and everyone in the medical profession regrets the disruption caused to the public, but the BMA has been forced to take this course because of the government’s intransigence and repeated failure to work with the BMA to reach a resolution to this dispute.”

A Department of Health spokesperson said in response: “We have always said reform of the junior doctors’ contract is just one part of our drive to create a safer, seven-day NHS – but as the BMA first agreed in 2008, the current arrangements are not fit for purpose.

“Regrettably, the BMA have inflamed the situation by breaking their word to negotiate about Saturday pay rates – had they not done so, we would have had a settlement by now. Instead, their irresponsible strike action will inevitably impact on patients.”