BMA doctor: Hunt 'childishly superficial' on A&E

A leader of family doctors is warning that GPs will not support an emergency care system he believes has been made unsafe by "political meddling".

The chair of the British Medical Association's GP committee, Dr Laurence Buckman, is making a speech today, in which he will accuse the Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt of "spouting rubbish".

Mr Hunt has described the contract, which nine years ago allowed family doctors to opt out of responsibility for after hours care, as "disastrous".

But Dr Buckman told the Today's programme's James Naughtie that Jeremy Hunt needs to understand that GPs are struggling to cope with rising patient demand.

"He keeps tweeting and speaking a childishly superficial and misleading analysis of a very complex problem and GPs are fed up of being blamed," Dr Buckman said.

"GPs are fed up of being the whipping boy in all this. We have tried to solve his problem and he has consistently refused to listen to simple advice," he added.

Dr Taj Hassan, vice president of the College of Emergency Medicine, said that staff in the accident and emergency services are "working under huge pressure".

"We must concentrate on finding solutions," he insisted.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Thursday 23 May 2013.