The Welsh arm of the British Medical Association (BMA Cymru) says the majority of its members in Wales would support industrial action, including strikes, over their current pay and conditions.

Almost two-thirds of hospital doctors surveyed by BMA Cymru said they would be willing to take some form of industrial action.

It could mean doctors in Wales go on strike for the very first time.

The survey piles pressure on ministers and comes amid a period widespread turmoil for health workers in Wales and around the UK, after nursing and ambulance services' unions rejected government pay offers and sent their members out onto picket lines.

BMA Cymru said the survey of hospital doctors in Wales, carried out this month, revealed 63 per cent of respondents would be willing to take industrial action, up to and including strikes.

It said it held the survey to gauge doctors' views "on the latest below-inflation pay award from [the] Welsh Government".

Ministers in Wales have offered the nation's doctors a 4.5 per cent pay rise, the union said, adding that the vast majority of its members (78 per cent) who responded to the survey "felt that a pay rise that matched or exceeded inflation was needed to reflect their current contribution".

BMA Cymru Wales said the starting salary is £26,000, with junior doctors in training programmes for between five and 11 years if they are training full-time, or longer if training less-than-full-time or with breaks. 

Iona Collins, who chairs the BMA's Welsh Council, said she had requested an urgent meeting with Welsh Government health minister Eluned Morgan to "discuss the need for immediate action".

She added that it was "gut-wrenching for doctors to consider walking away from work".

The announcement comes after a week of walkouts by nurses and ambulance staff across the country calling for better wages and conditions.

“This survey result is upsetting to all, including the doctors who took part," Dr Collins said.

"Doctors are healthcare professionals who invest most of their lives to care for others.

"They care passionately about their jobs and take their vocations seriously.

"It's gut-wrenching for doctors to consider walking away from work, when doctors know that they are so desperately needed in the workplace."

She warned doctors had been "quietly quitting" the NHS "for years, by reducing their contracted hours or leaving altogether".

Dr Collins said the financial incentive to work for the NHS had been "eroded over the last decade".

“No other healthcare system devalues their doctors like this, so there is little wonder that so many doctors leave the NHS to work elsewhere," she added.

Citing "record" patient waiting lists, she warned that "without action now, patients will continue to suffer as a direct consequence of an under-funded NHS with insufficient direct clinical care".

“On that basis we hope the Welsh Government will now finally wake up to the crisis in the medical workforce and take serious action, starting with better pay awards as part of an urgently required plan to address years of pay erosion," she said.

The BMA announced in October that a ballot for industrial action by junior doctors in England - who received a 2% pay increase this year - would open on 9 January.

The union said that over the past 15 years, junior doctors' take-home pay has been cut in real terms by more than a quarter.

Just under 1,000 doctors in Wales responded to the questionnaire seeking views on the latest pay award from the Welsh government of 4.5%, with 78% of those who answered saying they want a pay rise that matched or exceeded inflation.

The Welsh government said it understands the strength of feeling among doctors about the pay offer.

A Welsh Government spokesperson said: “We understand the strength of feeling among doctors about the pay offer and the pressures all public sector workers are under due to the cost-of-living crisis.

“We will continue to work to bring together trade unions, employers and government to deliver the best possible outcomes for workers, while continuing to call on the UK Government to use the funding it has to provide a fair pay offer to NHS staff and enable us to do the same in Wales.”