Steve Barclay today demands that doctors end their strikes and stop harming patients.

He accuses the British Medical Association of being reckless with needless walkouts, the latest this morning.

Writing for the Mail, the Health Secretary insists the medics have had a substantial rise that is more generous than pay deals for other public sector staff.

And he describes the union's threat to continue striking indefinitely as pointless and 'particularly concerning' in the run-up to winter, when the NHS comes under more pressure.

The rebuke – Mr Barclay's strongest yet – comes as thousands of junior doctors begin a fifth round of industrial action at 7am today and continuing until 7am on Tuesday.

The medics, who are pursuing a 35 per cent rise, will refuse to deliver care for four days – even in emergencies. Some of those picketing first started working for the NHS just nine days ago, having newly graduated.

Meanwhile, NHS waiting lists in England have now risen to a record 7.6million, according to official figures published yesterday.

Health leaders say the industrial action is hampering efforts to tackle the Covid treatment backlog, with 800,000 appointments and operations cancelled as a result.

They believe the true total may approach two million because many hospitals have avoided scheduling appointments on strike days so they do not need to cancel them.

Mr Barclay says the lowest paid junior doctors, those in their first year of training, will see their basic average pay increase by 10.3 per cent to around £47,600. When they progress to consultant level, they earn an average £134,000 a year and retire with an inflation-proofed annual pension of £78,000 – four times the UK average of £18,772.

He adds that doctors have nothing to gain from further strikes because the sum is 'final' and the Government has already said it is willing to discuss how to improve working lives.

Mr Barclay says: 'The BMA continues to act recklessly by going ahead with further unnecessary strike action this week, which only serves to harm patients and put further pressure on their own colleagues. We've seen again and again that no one benefits from this disruption and nearly 800,000 appointments or procedures have been postponed as a result of industrial action.

'It's extremely concerning, especially as the NHS works hard to recover from the pandemic and tackle a record backlog.'

He cites a poll showing over half the public believe the pay award is 'about right' or 'too high'.

Rishi Sunak has made tackling NHS waiting lists one of his five priorities, but the BMA says the Prime Minister is unlikely to achieve this aim while doctors continue to strike. Its leaders have even admitted to using patients as 'leverage' in their bid for more pay.

Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi, co-chairmen of the BMA's junior doctors committee, said: 'We are now at the stage where a whole new cohort of junior doctors is entering the profession, only to be immediately given no choice by the Government but to go on strike for their future.

'The Government should be ashamed that this is the state of the profession they are presenting to our newest doctors.

'If they want a health service that retains this talent for decades to come, they need to come to the table – not in weeks, not in months, but today. This dispute should never have gone on so long.'

Concerns have also been raised over the impact of the latest industrial action because a High Court ruling means the NHS cannot seek support from agency staff, as was the case during previous walkouts. Bosses said this would be an 'additional challenge' during this round of strikes even though they can still use their own bank staff to fill in for striking workers.

Sir Julian Hartley of NHS Providers, which represents trusts, said there would be a 'long-lasting effect on patients who have had treatment delayed and on already low staff morale' and warned trusts could be 'close to a tipping point'.

He added: 'Trusts and staff are pulling out all the stops to reduce waiting times for patients but with no end to strikes in sight, the sheer volume of planned treatment being put back due to industrial action will make it almost impossible for trusts to cut waiting lists as much as the Government wants.'

The NHS is urging the public to continue to use 999 for life-threatening emergencies and 111 online for anything non-urgent.

It says GPs and pharmacies are also open and largely unaffected. Patients should attend appointments unless told otherwise.