Dr Steven Montgomery, BMA’s Northern Ireland resident doctors committee chair, said the “better pay and better working conditions on offer in other countries means we are losing doctors when we really need to do all we can to keep doctors working here”.

He said the “growing patient numbers without the necessary number of doctors needed to meet this demand and pressure” was a “perfect storm for our health service”.

“We did not think we would have to take strike action again so soon after the last walk-outs, but we were left with no choice.

“The onus is now firmly on government to engage urgently and meaningfully and present a credible way forward to avert strike action,” Montgomery said.

Farren added: “Doctors in Northern Ireland are lowest paid in these islands and we have been trying to work with the minister and the department of health to rectify that, to get what he terms ‘pay parity’.

“Unfortunately, despite all of that, we continue to not have pay parity and, as a result, we have been forced after years of negotiations to take unprecedented strike action.”