John Reid, the health secretary, made peace with NHS hospital consultants in England last night after their negotiators accepted his offer of a revised contract that will no longer oblige doctors to do non-emergency work during evenings or weekends.

The British Medical Association will recommend its members accept a deal that will preserve consultants' right to treat private patients if they have first offered four hours' overtime to the NHS.

After two weeks of tense bargaining Mr Reid dropped proposals to make newly qualified consultants offer eight hours' overtime to the NHS before doing private work. But he protected the interests of NHS patients by adding a requirement that all consultants would normally devote three-quarters of their time to direct patient care.

If the new contract is accepted in a ballot of the 30,000 BMA consultants it will put an end to threats of industrial action that could have undermined the government's manifesto pledge to reduce hospital waiting times.

The consultants in England voted by a 2-1 majority in October to reject a £133m package that had been under negotiation with the Department of Health for 18 months.

Most were happy with a pay offer worth 19% over three years, but feared that the new contract would allow hospital managers to force them to work evenings and weekends.