Junior doctors 'don't inherently want to go on strike', a BMA committee chair has said as medical staff begin a four-day walkout over pay.

Downing Street has insisted there will be no talks unless junior doctors abandon their starting position of a 35 per cent rise and call off the industrial action.

It comes as hospital bosses estimate that 350,000 routine operations were likely to be cancelled in the wake of the strikes.

"We're already being set up to fail... We don't have enough staff to see patients in a timely manner," Dr Vivek Trivedi said.