Dr Mary McCarthy: NHS already delivers a 24/7 service, Mr Hunt

For anyone who has needed hospital treatment on a weekend, or overnight, you will know dedicated doctors and NHS staff do all they can to ensure that they continue to provide the best possible care for patients, 24/7.

For general practice, our local GPs run and staff the out-of-hours service, making sure that if needed, patients can be treated by a GP over the weekend. I'm not sure who Mr Hunt thinks does the out-of-hours work, but he talks as if the advice, out-of-hours appointments and weekend house calls are either not done at all or performed by a magic team of doctors. Doctors are so irritated and offended by Jeremy Hunt's latest remarks that they began a Twitter campaign telling the Minister of Health, #IminworkJeremy – and oh look, it's a weekend.

Doctors have always covered nights and weekends. In hospitals this is achieved by a shift system with consultants and more junior doctors taking turns to be in the hospital throughout the weekend and during the weekday nights and this has not changed over the years.

In general practice, Shropshire practices formed an out-of-hours co-operative so the burden of being up all night was fairly shared out among the available doctors, and so Shropdoc was born.

Shropshire health commissioners, first the Primary Care Trusts and then the Clinical Commissioning Groups, kept Shropdoc going despite the fact that other organisations offered a cheaper service. It was a smart decision. Using experienced doctors and nurses to take calls meant that diagnosis was better and fewer ambulances were used, which saved money in the long term.

Shropdoc is still used in out-of-hours discussions nationally as the gold standard of what a good and efficient system should be. It is, as we tell the health minister, a seven-day service.

The British Medical Association supports more seven-day hospital services, but the government must provide answers to the difficult questions. Where will the funding come from? Where will the necessary extra staff come from? How can we ensure there isn't a reduction in mid-week services or fewer doctors on wards Monday to Friday?

So please Mr Hunt, stop attacking NHS staff. Do what you have so far failed to do, and outline how you will provide the necessary resources and support needed to deliver the same high level standard of care patients deserve seven days a week.

The BMA is the voice of doctors and medical students in the UK.