Quarter of striking junior doctors working just four days a week

Health Secretary West Streeting said the strikes over pay are "inflicting pain and misery" on patients.

"We could do without this reckless action," he added.

Many thousands of patients have had their appointments or surgeries cancelled, with hospitals aiming to tighten their belts while the workforce is reduced.

The demands come as the number of resident doctors choosing to work part-time has increased to 25 per cent, The Telegraph revealed.

This figure was 15 per cent just four years ago, demonstrating a remarkable increase in a short period of time.

Additionally, in males, the number of those working part-time is up threefold, from five to 16 per cent in the same time frame.

The British Medical Association (BMA) demand a 26 per cent pay rise. The disputes also include working conditions and inflexible hours.

This comes despite receiving a 28.9 per cent increase over the last three years, with 22 per cent of that under the current Labour Government.

Health Secretary Mr Streeting slammed the BMA's "reprehensible behaviour" while on an LBC radio phone-in yesterday.

"On every single one of those fronts, on pay, on speciality training, places, on improvements to conditions, I have been working to address every single one of those issues," Mr Streeting told a caller.

"These are not the conditions in which people go out on strike. Strike should be a last resort, and I'm sorry, but when you say 'I don't want to be out on strike today', yes, you do, because you have made that choice.

"You have done so, having had a 28.9 per cent pay rise, the highest in the public sector, two years in a row, and on those things that you've just mentioned, you say they take time. Yes, they do, because it is complicated.

"So, to hold patients to ransom and to be out on strike, setting back the NHS, because you don't think we're going fast enough, and because the leadership of your union are not honest enough that some of this change takes time, is extremely irresponsible.

"It is extremely unnecessary, and the other listeners to this show who have not had a 28.9 per cent pay rise, whose taxes are paying for our National Health Service and who are receiving a substandard service, not least because of the damage that these rounds of industrial action are doing.

"I think they will be quite shocked, actually, that against the backdrop of a Health Secretary that wants to work with you, who acknowledges these are challenges and wants to address them, and has given you the biggest pay rise in the public sector two years in a row, I think people will be shocked by the BMA's reprehensible behaviour.

"Don't tell me you don't want to be out on strike, because that's exactly where you are. You made that choice, own it and own the damage it will do to your patients."

But Mr Streeting didn't stop there in his scathing criticism of the group, he continued: "I don't believe the BMA are speaking for their members. I think they're speaking for their activists.

"Those activists are damaging the NHS recovery, disrupting patients' lives, and they need to own the consequences of their actions."

The Health Secretary did offer to pay resident doctors' exam and other fees, and prioritise UK graduates over those trained abroad - this was flatly refused by the BMA.

Mr Streeting also confirmed that the cost of the latest round of action, estimated to be in the region of £240million, will not be available in any further negotiations.

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