WORKING in the austerity-hit NHS resembles “battlefield conditions,” striking junior doctors warned today as they urged Tory ministers to get round the negotiating table.

Conciliation service Acas said it is “well prepared and ready to help” after the British Medical Association (BMA) called for “someone to start brokering realistic talks” amid a four-day walkout.

The union, which launched its latest industrial action on Monday, repeated demands for a restorative pay award to make up for a whopping 26 per cent cut in take-home wages for the highly qualified workforce since 2008-9.

Tory Prime Minister Rishi Sunak claimed he wanted to find a “reasonable compromise,” but the apparent olive branch followed a statement from Downing Street on Tuesday that ruled out more talks if junior doctors do not abandon their starting position of a 35 per cent salary increase and call off the strike.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, who has banned his front bench from appearing on picket lines, partly backed that position today, suggesting the figure is “unaffordable.”

However, the BMA stressed the government should “get into the room and discuss pay restoration — whether that means 35 per cent or not.”

The latest exchanges came as striking workers warned the health service is on its knees.

Dr Stuart Innes, 28, reported being “burned out” after regularly working understaffed shifts at London’s St Thomas’ Hospital. 

“You’re playing battlefield medicine the entire time.

“My last night shift here I was short an extra doctor. So myself and my colleague were two instead of three seeing all of the medical admissions coming into hospital.

“We saw everyone, but I can’t honestly say I had as much time as I’d like to really think about everything. I didn’t have time to double check things.

“On more than one occasion I’ve had a member of senior management say we have no-one to work the night shift.

“I try to get as much sleep as I can and come back to do the 12-hour night shift after being there all day.

“We’re tired and burnt out, and we just want to be paid fairly.”

His colleague Cara McLean, 29, warned NHS careers are no longer a “sustainable way to live.”

She added: “It’s hard for the average person in the NHS to live in London, to have a family.

“As a doctor, I’m thinking about whether I need to move out of London, whether I should move to Australia, whether I should apply for jobs outside the NHS.

“If I was a student, I wouldn’t be thinking of doing medicine — it’s not a sustainable way to live.”

BMA council chairman Professor Philip Banfield stressed that he has been talking to Acas about trying to resolve the dispute “as quickly as possible” in the interests of the workforce and patients.  

Hospital bosses have expressed concerns about keeping those being treated safe as they struggle to secure cover for overnight junior doctor shifts during the walkouts. 

Prof Banfield told right-wing Times Radio: “I have been talking to Acas about the possibility of breaking down some of the preconditions that have been put on the juniors by this government to try and get this dispute resolved as quickly as possible.

“They haven’t even discussed with us what pay restoration means — get into the room and discuss pay restoration, let’s get into that negotiation.

“You are saying we’re not prepared to shift from 35 per cent. It is a misleading assumption that this is a figure that cannot be discussed within a negotiation.”