STRIKING junior doctors said the public backs their hourly pay demands as they began their three-day walkout to save the NHS today.

The average Briton would “bite your hand off” to pay that much to be treated and halt the health service’s staffing crisis, a picketing medic said.

Speaking to broadcasters in Nottingham, Dr Tal Ellenbogen, of the British Medical Association’s (BMA) junior doctor’s committee, said: “What we want is 2008 levels of pay — what that looks like is a doctor today, who earns £15 an hour for seeing you in A&E… we want them to be paid £20 a hour.

“If you asked any viewer, ‘is £20 an hour on a Friday night a reasonable amount of pay for your healthcare they would bite your hand off.”

He added: “You see our colleagues leaving left, right and centre due to 15 years of pay cuts.

“That means that we are covering far more patients than we should — sometimes 150 patients on a night shift.”

The committee’s co-chairman Vivek Trivedi was challenged why the BMA had not accepted the government’s latest pay offer on BBC Breakfast.

He said: “We are looking at fully restored pay but what we’ve said many times is we are not asking for that overnight or in one go.

“Now this average 3 per cent uplift that was just offered would mean doctors who are paid right now £15.50 an hour to be paid £16 an hour — an increase of 50p.

“What we are asking for is for them to be paid £21 an hour — it’s not unreasonable.”

He highlighted research that found doctors’ pay cuts were 10 times worse than the average worker since 2008, adding: “All we are trying to do is to reverse those pay cuts, so we can keep those doctors and save the NHS.”

The doctors’ leader also challenged the government to make an offer so strikes in England could be “cancelled today” after Health Secretary Victoria Atkins blamed the BMA for patients being unable to be sent home from hospital in time for Christmas.

Dr Trivedi said ministers needed to “recognise and value doctors and not inflict a real-terms pay cut” to break the deadlock.

He said: “We have never walked away from talks, we have called strike action and then the government has walked away from talks, but we’re ready to speak at any point.

“There is no law, there is no rule that stops people talking when strikes are called.

“We saw a completely different approach in Scotland where our colleagues had called for strike action but their government met them at the table and they negotiated a deal which … was good enough to be agreed by members, and they were able to avert strike action, full stop.

“I only wish that our government would take some notice of that.”

Conciliation service Acas said it is “ready to help” resolve the dispute.

But Ms Atkins said while she wanted to reach a “fair and reasonable” settlement with doctors “I cannot do that if they’re on the picket line, rather than in hospitals looking after patients.”

The NHS has said emergency and urgent care will be prioritised during the strikes and that “almost all” routine care will be affected by the ongoing action.

Junior doctors are also preparing for the longest-ever walkout in the NHS for six days from January 3.

It comes after Age UK, NHS Confederation, Healthwatch England, National Voices and the Patients Association wrote to the BMA and the government expressing concerns over the strike.

Labour frontbencher Jonathan Ashworth said the strike was a failure of leadership by PM Rishi Sunak.

It comes as the Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association announced that its junior doctors have extended their strike mandate until June.

The BMA announced the strike earlier this month after talks between junior doctors and the government broke down.

Junior doctors in Wales are planning a 72-hour walkout from January 15, while doctors in training in Northern Ireland are being balloted for potential strike action.

Consultant doctors and speciality doctors from the BMA in England are voting on whether to accept their deals with the government.