The most senior doctors in the country are due to walk out in a bitter dispute with the Government over pay.

Here are your questions on the strike answered.

– Why are consultants striking?

Consultants in England who are members of the British Medical Association (BMA) have voted to go on strike for 48 hours as a result of the row over pay.

They are calling for a “credible pay offer”, citing years of below-inflation rises.

The BMA has said take-home pay for consultants has fallen by 35% since 2008.

– What have they been given?

Last week the Government announced pay increases for millions of public sector workers including doctors.

Junior doctors will receive a 6% rise along with an additional consolidated £1,250 increase, officials said, while hospital consultants will receive a 6% increase.

The BMA says this is “derisory” and argues that consultants have seen real-terms take-home pay fall by more than a third over the last 14 years.

– How much does a consultant actually earn?

Consultants on a 2003 contract earn a starting salary of £88,364 in basic pay, rising to £119,133 after around 19 years, according to the BMA.

The Department of Health and Social Care said that on average, consultants have additional earnings worth around 31% of basic pay, covering “additional programmed activities”, clinical excellence awards and on-call payments, which take total average NHS earnings for 2022/23 to around £127,000.

The department said that for 2023/24 this will rise to an average of around £134,000.

– When will the strike take place?

Consultants in England will walk out at 7am on July 20 and stay on strike until 7am on July 22.

They will still provide “Christmas Day cover”, which means most routine and pre-planned services will be cancelled but full emergency cover will remain.

Medics are being invited to join picket lines across the country or attend a rally in London.

– Will I still have my hospital appointment?

Patients have been told to attend appointments as normal unless they have been contacted and told the sessions have been postponed.

People have been told to still use 999 in life-threatening emergencies and NHS 111 online for other health concerns. GP services and pharmacies can be accessed in the normal way.

– What is different about this strike?

In contrast to strikes by other NHS workers, no one can cover consultants because they are the top doctors in a hospital.

As well as their own work, consultants also supervise the work of their juniors.

NHS leaders say this means routine care will be “virtually at a standstill” during the strike.

It follows the longest walkout in NHS history after junior doctors finished a five-day strike on Tuesday.

– Are any future strikes planned?

Yes. Before the first round of strike began the BMA Consultants Committee announced further walkouts will take place in August.

These are due to take place shortly before the August Bank Holiday, on August 24 and 25.

The BMA said its announcement was in response to the Government imposing “another real-terms pay cut” on doctors last week.

– What’s going on to stop the strikes?

At the moment, nothing. The Government has said its pay deal for doctors was the “final offer” and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said there would be “no more talks on pay”.

Despite this, BMA leaders have written to the Health Secretary imploring him to meet them and discuss how to avert strikes.

– Will all consultants strike?

Before a stoppage happens, members of a union are balloted to see whether they want to go on strike.

More than 24,000 consultants in England responded to the BMA’s ballot – a turnout of 71%.

Some 86% of these said they wanted to strike.

Consultants who are members of the Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association (HCSA), who are not also members of the BMA, have been advised they should attend work on strike days.

The HCSA is planning a consultative ballot of NHS England consultants “shortly”.

– Have there been any counter arguments from doctors?

One consultant spoke out against the action at the BMA’s annual meeting earlier this month.

Dr David Randall, a kidney care specialist, said consultants are wealthy enough to strike “indefinitely” and asking for full pay restoration was based on “faulty logic” which suggests “doctors’ incomes should be unaffected by anything that has happened to the nation since 2008, that others should feel the pain of recession, Brexit, pandemic and war, but not us”.

He told the meeting in Liverpool that consultants should push for a pay rise but one that “allows us to look our colleagues and our patients in the eye”.