A doctor writes, but will Jeremy Hunt listen?

Dr Land has joined several doctors and other NHS workers who have launched attacks on the Mr Hunt on social media.

It comes after the minister was accused of launching a "wholesale attack on doctors" by the British Medical Association (BMA) after threatening to force them to work seven-day weeks.

He has warned doctors that unless they agree to work more weekends, he will enforce new seven-day contracts upon them.

But the BMA, the doctors' union, branded his ultimatum a "blatant attempt" to distract from the Government's "refusal to invest properly in emergency care".

And the debate has raged on social media ever since, with Dr Land's open letter attracting almost 200,000 Facebook likes, 91,000 shares and 12,000 comments.

Dear Jeremy Hunt,

Do you remember the story about the patient who went to hospital on Friday night and didn't get seen by a doctor until Monday morning? Me neither....

Are you at work this weekend Jeremy? Because I am. Thank you for making out that we're lazy, money-grabbing doctors who don't want to work long hours, especially at the weekend.

Despite being employed part time (I have a nine-month-old son at home), I'll have worked over 60 hours this week. We, Jeremy, are the people skipping lunch so we can make sure our patients' paperwork is done so they can go home on time. We're the people missing family birthdays, our friends' weddings, our children's first steps, because we're putting our patients' needs first. We are the people that don't see our own families anywhere near as much as we'd like to, because we're busy taking care of yours.

The NHS workforce is at breaking point Mr Hunt. Morale is shot, burnout is at an all time high and to be honest, I think the vast majority of us are wondering what the hell we did this job for in the first place. This is certainly not what I signed up for when I skipped off to Medical School at 18, thinking I'd "make a difference".

Stop making out we're lazy, stop making out we're greedy and stop trying to create a problem that doesn't exist. I've yet to come across a speciality in which the consultant isn't either at work all weekend or at the end of the phone (willing to come in at any time should we need them).

Until, Mr Hunt, you establish a better understanding of how Doctors and hospitals work (it seems you've still failed to grasp the difference between routine and emergency care) I suggest you take a step back from your post as Health Secretary. Perhaps let someone who knows what they're talking about and actually listens to us, take over. If you don't Jeremy, you'll be going down in history forever as the man that killed the NHS. Could you live with all that blood on your hands?

Dr Land, of Newtown, is believed to work in Telford. She gives no details of her job, but reveals that she frequently works weekends in a letter she posted as part of the online campaign dubbed #ImInWorkJeremy in which medics tweet and post selfies of themselves on the wards to the cabinet member.

In a series of jibes, she suggests Mr Hunt could not tell the difference between routine and emergency care and needed a better understanding of "how doctors and hospitals work".

She wrote: "Until (you understand), I suggest you take a step back from your post as health secretary.

"Perhaps let someone who knows what they're talking about and actually listens to us, take over.

"If you don't Jeremy, you'll be going down in history forever as the man that killed the NHS. Could you live with all that blood on your hands?"

Dr Land explains that she is employed part time because she has a nine-month-old son at home, but has still worked 60 hours in the week.

And she describes how most consultants she knows either work weekends or are always at the end of a phone and happy to deal with queries on their days off.

She says doctors frequently skip lunch to ensure patient paperwork is complete so they can leave on time and regularly miss family events after putting patients first.

The letter has prompted a lively debate from people supporting her stance.

Eleanor Hamilton wrote: "Thank you for being a doctor and a great mum. I am glad there are still people like you and nurses too. Our politicians are tactless morons who say things they haven't thought about at all."

Eileen Palmer added: "Go, girl, go." And Jez Thomas said: "Well said. We in the NHS work hard every day and night with little or no thanks or respect from the politicians."

But some do defend the stance of Mr Hunt, saying that medics need to accept that times change and that staff need to be more flexible to save money and improve care.

Gunilla Loe said: "We cannot expect an ever-growing NHS to survive just on our taxes and NI contributions."

Mr Hunt said he would give the BMA six weeks to negotiate changes to working contracts for hospital consultants and junior doctors after claiming around 6,000 lives are lost a year for lack of senior staff on Saturdays and Sundays. In a speech to the King's Fund in London, he warned: "Be in no doubt: if we can't negotiate, we are ready to impose a new contract.

"The problem dates back to 2003 when the then government gave consultants the right to opt out of working at weekends – that's a right that nurses don't have, midwives don't have, paramedics, ambulance drivers and so on don't have."

His stance angered medical staff, who posted pictures of themselves online working weekend shifts. One worker, named Erica P from Brighton, tweeted a photo of herself with a stethoscope, writing that she was working 13 hours on Saturday.

Sebastian Nixon, another NHS worker, tweeted that he was also at work on Saturday, saying: "Damn these lazy doctors and their extravagant weekends."

And Clovis Rau, a junior doctor, tweeted that he had been in work on Friday night – and "all of this week".

In a reply to his critics, Mr Hunt also took to Twitter – and also used the #ImInWorkJeremy hashtag – saying he wanted to make the NHS "safer". Dr Mark Porter, from the British Medical Association, accused Mr Hunt of being "too simplistic".

Shrewsbury GP reveals anger over Hunt comments

GP Mary McCarthy today spoke of the "irritation" caused by Jeremy Hunt's comments.

The Shrewsbury GP, a columnist for the Shropshire Star, said her colleagues were annoyed by the impression he gave that the whole NHS closes down on a Friday and reopens on a Monday.

Dr McCarthy, who works at Belvidere Medical Practice in Belvidere Road, Shrewsbury, added: "Hospital doctors, consultants and more junior doctors, work shift systems to cover nights and weekends and always have, since the NHS started in 1948.

"Local GPs work in the out-of-hours service Shropdoc where they cover their own and other Shropshire practices manning the telephone lines, alongside experienced nurses, assessing the symptoms of patients who ring up and either offering advice on the phone or inviting them down to a base appointment.

"If neither of these is a feasible option then they will arrange a doctor to visit at home.

"This service is provided by GPs.

"I'm not sure who Jeremy Hunt thinks provides this out-of-hours service but it is definitely not done by the fairies.

"It's done by working GPs who patients will see in their local surgery during the week.

"So it is no wonder that doctors of all kinds wonder if the Minister of Health really knows what NHS staff do," added Dr McCarthy.

* Read more of Dr McCarthy's views on the NHS – every Saturday in the Shropshire Star