Jeremy Hunt: "We will deliver a seven-day NHS"

Health Minister Jeremy Hunt explained to the Today programme that the government is to address higher mortality rates for those admitted to NHS hospitals at weekends, saying: "Illness doesn't just happen Monday to Friday, it happens 24/7, and that's why this next step is a really really important one."

He conceded that "painful" reforms of the NHS under the coalition government had not been "popular" but stressed that "public satisfaction is growing".