Jeremy Hunt has said that the health service "will not be saving a penny" ahead of planned protests in London over changes to the junior doctors contract.
Speaking on the BBC Today Programme on Saturday, Hunt expressed frustration that the British Medical Association, who has said that the health secretary risks alienating an entire generation of doctors with a contract that is "bad for patients, bad for junior doctors, and bad for the NHS", is misleading people.
"I have made it absolutely clear that we don't want to reduce the to pay junior doctors," Hunt said.
"What we need to do is change the balance of pay between weekdays and weekends so that we don't force hospitals to roster three times less medical cover at weekends, leading to a 15% greater chance of dying if you're admitted at weekends."
"We are cutting one rate and increasing another rate [basic pay] to make sure that doctors don't lose out," he said.
The contract proposed by Hunt could see "sociable working hours" for which junior doctors are paid a standard rate change from 7am-7pm Monday-Friday to 7am-10pm Monday-Saturday. It would also remove incremental pay rises, with increases instead based on moving through the stages of training and taking on more responsibility. Doctors have said that the new contract also removes safeguards that mean hospitals can be penalised for overworking juniors.
Many doctors have expressed concerns that changes to pay structure, that would allow for the increase in pay to which Hunt refers, would be particularly prohibitive to women or anyone who wishes to change specialties.
But in response to Hunt's comments, junior doctor Osman Khalid, who plans to protest on Saturday, told BuzzFeed News, "I wish Jeremy Hunt would stop misquoting both the evidence and us.
"The 15% increase in mortality he mentions is 30-day mortality, however that same study showed that if you are in a hospital on a Sunday you are 9% less likely to die overall.
"Another figure Hunt has used is: '11,000 extra deaths at the weekend', yet the study this is taken from clearly states that this cannot be explained by staffing alone.
"If doctors used data in this way we'd be struck off."
Khalid disagreed that doctors were being misled, noting that, "the BMA has sent around digital copies of Hunt's letters so we can read them ourselves. This is transparent. There is no withholding of or manipulation of information.
"If anyone is guilty of doctoring information then it's Hunt."
He said Hunt was "scaremonger" and accused him of "ignoring the resounding voice of every professional in his field.
"We mustn't let him win. It's an issue of both patient safety and doctor safety."
Today I march and @Number10gov @Jeremy_Hunt I want this message to be loud and clear. #ISTANDWITHJOHANN
Junior doctor Hannah Fosker told BuzzFeed News that she considered it very "convenient" that Hunt would accuse the BMA of of misleading doctors ahead of the planned protest, which she is due to attend.
She agreed with Khalid that the BMA's processes had been entirely transparent. "Dr Johann Malawana, the BMA's Junior Doctors' Committee chairman, has been in close contact with junior doctors throughout, listening to our views on the subject," she told us. "In contrast, Jeremy Hunt has continued to fail to give the concrete assurances we have asked for to ensure our patients and working conditions are safe."
Fosker felt that it was actually "Hunt [who] has misled the public regarding the safety of hospitals at the weekend, with patients postponing attendance to A&E till Monday to the detriment of their health.
"He has continually blamed the BMA for the breakdown in 'negotiations' when these were only an option if certain unsafe preconditions were accepted first. The BMA has had no choice but to walk away from these discussions because doctors will never accept preconditions that are unsafe for our patients."
She echoed sentiments expressed by Malawana in an interview with BuzzFeed News earlier this week that Hunt has "given us no reason to consider him the trustworthy party throughout these discussions.
"We will continue to stand with Dr Johann Malawana and with the BMA on this."