JUNIOR doctors will take to the region's streets this weekend in protest at the Government's plans to introduce a new contract which they claim will lead to 30 per cent pay cuts.

Doctors will gather in Newcastle city centre on Saturday as the row between Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt and the British Medical Association (BMA) intensifies.

The protest follows a demonstration in London attended by an estimated 20,000 people on Saturday, October 17.

Under the current plans, the contract will reclassify doctors' normal working week to include Saturdays and late evening working.

Critics have argued the deal could mean pay cuts of up to 30 per cent, with "normal hours" reclassified as being from 7am to 10pm, Monday to Saturday.

Extra payments for unsociable working will be earned only outside of these times, rather than the current arrangements of 7am to 7pm Monday to Friday.

One of those speaking at the protest this weekend will be Dr Clive Peedell, a cancer consultant at The James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough who stood for the National Health Action Party at the General Election.

He described the new contract as a "cynical ploy to get doctors working more hours for less pay", adding: "The proposed contract will mean a pay cut of up to 30 per cent for the junior doctors who work the most unsociable hours ie those who work weekends and nights in the emergency medicine specialities.

"With our emergency services already at breaking point, a recruitment crisis in A&E, and a winter crisis around the corner, this will be dangerous for patient care and unfair on hard working junior doctors. Jeremy Hunt and NHS employers should be ashamed of themselves."

Durham junior doctor Sandip Nandhra will be one those attending the march.

He said: "This contract is a kick in the teeth to doctors and is set to break the back of the NHS.

"Wider cuts to salaries are rumoured to be in the offing through similar contract restructuring, we cannot stand by and let this happen."

Mr Hunt has accused the BMA of ''misrepresenting'' the proposed changes, insisting the new contract is a ''good deal'' for doctors.

''I think it is incredibly disappointing, the way that the BMA has misrepresented the Government's position,'' he said.

''It's caused a huge amount of anger unnecessarily. We don't want to cut the pay going to junior doctors, we do want to change the pay structures that force hospitals to roster three times less medical cover at weekends as they do in weeks and that means that there's a 15 per cent greater chance of you dying if you are admitted on a Sunday, compared to being admitted on a Wednesday.''