THE Government's decision to impose a new contract on junior doctors is likely to lead to a mass exodus of doctors from England, it has being claimed.

Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, announced a new deal will be imposed after final negotiations with the British Medical Association failed.

Mr Hunt said that the new contract will mean an increase in basic salary of 13.5 per cent, higher than the previously stated 11 per cent, and that three quarters of doctors will see their take-home pay increase.

Meanwhile he insisted that no trainee working within contracted hours will have their pay cut.

However, Mr Hunt told the Commons during a statement that the negotiating process with the BMA had uncovered some 'wider and more deep-seated issues relating to junior doctors' morale'.

As a result he announced a Government review which will look at what measures can be put in place to remedy the situation.

Chairman of Patient Voices Group, Russ McLean, said: "I'm quite sad that it's come to having the contract imposed upon them.

"That's really going to have a knock-on effect.

"The morale of junior doctors is going to be dented and it's going to have an effect on the patients. A happy staff means happy patients.

"I think there will be a mass exodus of junior doctors to other countries. I spent time on the picket line talking to them to get a feeling about why they are angry. The general consensus was that if it is imposed they would seek to be employed in other countries."

BMA representative for Lancashire and Blackburn GP, Dr David Wrigley, said: "It's a massive disappointment that Jeremy Hunt hasn't listened to the medical profession with their concerns about an unsafe and unfair contract.

"He has imposed this contract which could well lead to an exodus of doctors out of England. It's interesting that Scotland and Wales are trying to encourage doctors there. They haven't found the need to impose a contract."

In 2005 the health secretary co-authored a book, 'Direct Democracy' calling for the NHS to be dismantled.

Dr Wrigley added: "Some years ago Jeremy Hunt co-authored a book about the privatisation of the NHS so that issue is very much on his agenda."

Dr Jennifer Redfern, junior doctor currently working at Royal Blackburn Hospital and BMA representative for East Lancashire Hospital Trust, said: "It's a very sad day for the NHS. Jeremy Hunt has managed to alienate a whole generation of doctors."

Dr Redfern said she and a group of colleagues planned to attend an emergency protest organised in Manchester on Thursday evening.

Dr Johann Malawana, BMA junior doctor committee chair, said: "Junior doctors already work around the clock, seven days a week and they do so under their existing contract.

"If the Government want more seven-day services then, quite simply, it needs more doctors, nurses and diagnostic staff, and the extra investment needed to deliver it. Rather than addressing these issues, the Health Secretary is ploughing ahead with proposals that are fundamentally unfair."