NHS officials in the West Midlands are proposing to pay family doctors £150 an hour – as well as £200 towards staffing costs - to work on Easter Saturday . GPs are in revolt over NHS plans to offer them a ‘ paltry ’ £650 for opening their surgeries on the morning of Easter Saturday . Officials in the West Midlands are proposing to pay family doctors £150 an hour – as well as £200 towards staffing costs – to work for three hours that morning . But a number of GPs have condemned the size of the payments and say they ’ ll only turn up if the money is 'quadrupled ' . The offer is being made by NHS managers in the West Midlands to avert an expected surge in A & E attendances over the Easter weekend , in early April . Most GP surgeries will be closed for four days in a row from Good Friday , 3rd April , through to Easter Monday , which is also a bank holiday . Many patients who fall ill in this time will go to A & E as they are still unaware of how to contact their out-of-hours service or of the NHS 111 helpline . A & E units are still under intense pressure even though winter is almost over and the numbers of seriously ill patients has declined . Figures for last week showed that the NHS as a whole failed to meet the target of ensuring that 95 per cent of patients were seen within four hours . This has not been met since September but health officials are hoping that the situation will finally improve in April , when the weather turns milder and winter illnesses begin to abate . But they are concerned that a sudden surge in demand when GPs are closed over Easter will cause extra pressures and set hospitals back again . NHS officials are offering surgeries in the region covering Birmingham , Solihull , Hereford and Worcester £650 to open for three hours . This includes £150 per hour paid to one GP for three hours and the remaining £200 to pay for receptionists or practice nurses . Guidance obtained by Pulse magazine urges practices to sign-up to the arrangement by tomorrow afternoon . It states : ‘ We are keen for practices to offer sessions if possible and have agreed a costing . ‘ Please confirm if you wish to participate at earliest convenience to allows us to assess impact and by close of play on Wednesday 11th March at the latest . ' The offer is being made by NHS managers in the West Midlands to avert an expected surge in A & E attendances over the Easter weekend , but many GPs have said the offer should be 'quadrupled ' ( file picture ) There are 600 practices in two regions being offered the payments which include the Birmingham , Solihull and the Black Country as well as Arden , Herefordshire and Worcestershire . But a number of GPs took to the Pulse website to express their disgust at the size of the payments . One wrote : ‘ GPs in England work for such paltry sums it ’ s embarrassing. ’ Another said : ‘ Now they ’ ve established the principle of paying , tell em to quadruple it. ’ One , a GP partner , a senior doctor in charge of a surgery , said : ‘ I do not get out of bed for less than £300 per hour ’ – although it was not clear from his tone whether he was joking . And a practice nurse said : ‘ A plumber would get paid more , a solicitor would get that per hour . We are seen of no value . ’
NHS officials in West Midlands are proposing to pay doctors £200 per hour . Also plan to put £150 towards staff costs to encourage GPs to work Easter . Offer is being made in attempt to avert expected surge in A & E attendances . However , GPs have condemned it and said money should be 'quadrupled '