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Junior doctors in Wales have begun their three-day strike action in a dispute over pay.

Doctors’ union BMA Cymru Wales argue that junior doctors in Wales have experienced a pay cut of 29.6% in real terms over the last 15 years.

According to the BMA, the 72-hour full walkout could potentially see more than 3,000 doctors withdraw their labour from Welsh hospitals and GP surgeries across Wales.

The BMA has rejected the 5% uplift for consultants, junior, and specialty and associate specialist (SAS) doctors. Consultants and SAS doctors also agreed to vote on strike action last year.

The 5% in Wales is the lowest pay increase of the UK nations. In England doctors were offered a 6% rise in July. The Doctors and Dentist Pay Review Body had recommended a 6% increase.

In a statement, Aneurin Bevan University Health Board (ABUHB) has said it was “doing all we can” to minimise disruption for patients.

The health board continued: “Patients with a pre-booked appointment or procedure in one of our hospitals during the strike period will be contacted directly by our booking team, should their appointment be affected. 

“Patients who are not contacted are advised to attend any booked appointments as normal.”

ABUHB has confirmed the emergency department at the Grange Hospital in Cwmbran will remain open for the most serious patients – but urged people to only attend A&E if they are seriously ill or injured, or if there is a risk to life.

In a joint statement issued last month, when the results of the ballot were published, Dr Oba Babs-Osibodu and Dr Peter Fahey co-chairs of BMA Cymru Wales’ junior doctors committee said the vote showed the strength of feeling and that junior doctors were “frustrated, in despair, and angry”.

They said: “A doctor starting their career in Wales will earn as little as £13.65 an hour and for that they could be performing lifesaving procedures and taking on huge levels of responsibility.”

They added: “This is not a decision that has been made lightly. No doctor wants to take industrial action, but we have been given no choice. Doctors are already voting with their feet and leaving the NHS and we are in a vicious cycle of crippling staffing shortages and worsening patient care.”

A Welsh Government spokesperson said: “It is disappointing that doctors have voted for industrial action but we understand their strength of feeling about the 5% pay offer.

“While we wish to address their pay restoration ambitions, our offer is at the limits of the finances available to us and reflects the position reached with the other health unions.”