Jeremy Hunt: I don't want to have to impose junior doctors' contracts
Jeremy Hunt has said he doesn't want to impose controversial new contracts on junior doctors but added the ongoing row does require a "resolution".
Speaking as doctors held a second 24-hour strike over the proposed contracts, the health secretary said only one issue - pay rates for Saturdays - was still being disputed.
Mr Hunt claimed no proposals had been put forward by doctors that would deal with the "weekend effect" - by which mortality rates were said to be higher on Saturdays and Sundays.
Doctors, however, claim these statistics have been misrepresented.
The comments come after the British Medical Association (BMA) - which represents doctors - said they had put forward a proposal that would have seen doctors' basic pay rise by about half the 11% offered by ministers in return for Saturday not being treated as a normal day.
He added that he was "offering something that is better for doctors who work regularly on a Saturday, better for nurses working in the same hospital and for the ambulance driver who takes a patient to the hospital and for the healthcare assistants in that hospital."
"I think it's a good deal, a fair deal, and we should be working together to do the right thing for patients," he said.
He added that 43% of junior doctors had turned up for work during the latest strike - a slight increase on the previous action.