Consultants and hospital dentists taking part in two days of industrial action say they felt compelled to ‘take a stand’ over pay

Hundreds of striking NHS consultants gathered at a rally in central London on Thursday were told: “Every single one of us has wrestled with this decision.”

Dr Vishal Sharma, from the British Medical Association’s UK consultants committee, told the gathering at the BMA headquarters that it had “not been an easy decision”. But action was necessary as consultants’ pay risked a brain drain in the form of an exodus from the UK, or to the private sector, he said.