Doctors demand increased wages to work evenings and the weekend Doctors" hourly pay is now 25 per cent more for night and weekend shifts But casualty wards are suffering 'recruitment crisis' because job is so hard Doctors argue that better pay would make working in them more attractive MPs warn A&E wards may be unable to cope with patient surge this winter Casualty doctors say they must be paid double to work evenings and weekends. It follows concern that there are too few staff to cope with the soaring numbers turning up in A&E. But the demand drew an angry response from patients" groups, one of which said: "It's not a part-time business they're working in, it's a full-time job." Tough job: Casualty doctors say they must be paid double to work evenings and weekends, following concern that there are too few staff to cope with the soaring numbers turning up in A&E. (Stock picture) Yesterday a report by the Health Select Committee warned that 80 per cent of emergency departments did not always have a consultant working during the 16 busiest hours of the day. And the College of Emergency Medicine said there is a "recruitment crisis," with too few junior doctors wanting to pursue a career in A&E because it is so demanding. Its president Dr Clifford Mann, an A&E consultant, said the NHS needed an extra 300 doctors in casualty to ensure patients were properly cared for round the clock. He said their terms and conditions should be "amended" - with higher pay for out-of-hours work - to make the profession more attractive. At present, A&E doctors" hourly pay is about 25 per cent more for overnight and weekend shifts. But Dr Mann said the salary calculations should be changed so doctors working shifts after midnight would receive twice the hourly rate, allowing them to take more time off while earning a similar salary. But well remunerated: Dr Clifford Mann said salary calculations should be changed so doctors working after midnight receive twice the hourly rate, allowing them to take more time off while earning a similar salary "It's not because we want people to earn more money, it's because they need more time back," added Dr Mann, a consultant at the Taunton and Somerset hospitals trust. A doctor would work two nights a week, and then one weekend in three but then he would actually get nine days off. It would mean, yes, you work these antisocial hours, but you would get quite a bit of time off, usually in blocks, which means you could do something else with your life. Recruitment crisis: Too few junior doctors want to pursue a career in A&E because it is so demanding, said the College of Emergency Medicine He said the NHS has failed to recruit 100 junior doctors into senior posts in A&E for the last three years running. Consultants earn an average of £108,000 a year while middle-grade doctors are on salaries of between £60,000 and £80,000. If their pay were to be increased, the impact on their salaries would depend on how many out-of-hours shifts they did in A&E. Joyce Robins, of Patient Concern, said: "It's absolutely ridiculous to demand doctors be paid more. It's not a part-time business they're working in, it's a full-time job. 'If you work in A&E that's your job to work unsociable hours. You shouldn't go into it if you want short hours - it isn't that sort of job' Joyce Robins, Patient Concern 'If you work in A&E that's your job to work unsociable hours - that's what patients expect and what patients need. You shouldn't go into it if you want short hours - it isn't that sort of job. 'Doctors in A&E departments aren't the only people who have to work nights and weekends, so why should they earn more? Conservative Andrew Percy, who serves on the Health Committee, said: "I'd like to think that the vast majority of people who go into medicine do it because they want to give back to the community and that means working unsociable hours. I'm on a good wage and I volunteer with the ambulance service to help others. Doctors are on an even better wage. To suggest they should get paid more is effectively to say that more of the NHS budget should be spent on their salaries and that less should be spent on patient care, which is unacceptable. He added: "Doctors do work very hard, and are very dedicated to their training but to say they should be paid more is a bit cheeky. What should drive you is the want to give back to the community. Public service is a privilege and those who work in the public sector are rewarded handsomely in their pay and pension schemes as it is. Now is not the time to argue more should be spent on salaries. Yesterday a report by MPs on the Health Select Committee warned that A&E units would be unable to cope with the surge in sick patients this winter. Last year more than a quarter of a million extra patients turned up in casualty compared with the previous 12 months and the numbers are expected to rise further. This increase has been blamed on a failure of GP out-of-hours services - which leaves patients with nowhere else to go - on top of the ageing population with higher numbers of the elderly becoming ill. The problems have been worsened by the NHS 111 helpline with patients being sent down to A&E unnecessarily by unqualified call centre handlers. Dame Barbara Hakin, chief operating officer of NHS England, the body that runs the Health Service, said: "It's very disappointing that accident and emergency departments don't have as much consultant cover as we would all wish them to have. We need to work much harder at making this an attractive profession for young doctors. If you don't have the best possible resource, that can compromise the best treatment.