Doctors' leaders deny patients will lose their lives as a result of "reckless" strike action “in the heart of the Christmas season.”

They say the real danger is when patients don’t get the care “they deserve” because doctors are leaving the profession.

The five day walkout by resident doctors in England was announced by The British Medical Association (BMA) on Monday.

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It is planned to go ahead on Wednesday after members rejected a new offer from the Government.

It comes as Health Secretary Wes Streeting warns Britain is facing a'tsunami of flu' and said a strike is 'choosing to put lives at risk this Christmas'.

Patients group says the strike will hurt older people most who face being stuck in hospital with flu over Christmas because there is no one to safely discharge them.

The British Medical Association said 83% of its members had voted to continue with the walkout in an online poll over the weekend, with a turnout of 65%.

Prime Minister Keir Starmersaid he was "gutted" by the result, describing it as "irresponsible" given the rising pressure from flu.

The number of people in hospital in England with flu remains at a record level for this time of year and has jumped by 55% in a week, NHS figures show.

Former BMA member Lord Winston, who quit the union in protest over the strikes, said on Monday that he thought people would die as a result.

The Government accused the union of staging the strike at a time that would "inflict as much damage as they can" on the NHS amid rising levels of flu in hospitals.

Asked about the suggestion that people would die during this industrial action, Dr Shivam Sharma, deputy chairman of the BMA's resident doctors committee, told LBC Radio: "I would completely disagree with that, and I want to be evidence-based.

“We know that senior colleagues, consultants will be covering this strike action, and we know that studies have shown that mortality rates do not increase, they stay the same, if not decrease during strike action because we have those experienced senior consultants that are covering.

"And actually, what's dangerous for patients is continuing down this trend where doctors continue to leave, patients aren't getting the care that they deserve, and doctors are feeling that they're in a system that is setting them up to fail."

The offer from the Government included a fast expansion of specialist training posts as well as covering out-of-pocket expenses such as exam fees, but did not include extra pay.

Dr Sharma said that the feedback the union received was that the Government's offer "doesn't go far enough on both jobs and pay".

Health minister Stephen Kinnock said the Government had offered for the union to extend its mandate and stage the strike in January instead of December, telling Times Radio: "For reasons best known to themselves, they have insisted on going ahead with this strike action right in the heart of the Christmas season, and that I think is dangerous, reckless and irresponsible."

He said: "Most reasonable, fair-minded people would be looking at this and saying: 'Well, if I got a 29% pay rise, I would not be coming back a few months later asking for 26% more'.

"It's just not reasonable. It's not really living in the real world.

"And I just fear that the leadership of the BMA are just hell-bent on going on to these strikes and frankly trying to inflict as much damage as they can on the NHS, and that is just simply the wrong thing to do."

Asked whether he supported Conservative Party pledges to ban doctors from going on strike, Mr Kinnock told LBC Radio: "That's not the right way to deal with this issue.

"The right way to deal with this issue is to just say to the resident doctors and to the BMA leadership in particular: 'You need to come into the real world. You need to see sense on this one. We have made an extraordinarily good offer and if you want any of the other parties in power, particularly to the right of the Labour Party, you're going to see Reform wanting to privatise the NHS, turn it on its head, and create the kind of NHS that I'm pretty sure most resident doctors would not want to see'.

"So what I would say to them generally is: 'Be careful what you wish for'."

NHS leaders reportedly claim the effect of the strikes would be "more severe" due to the proximity of winter pressures and proximity to Christmas".

Rachel Power, Chief Executive of The Patients Association, said of the strike: "Older people are already the most likely to be admitted to hospital with flu, and many will now face the very real prospect of being stuck in hospital over Christmas, and potentially well beyond it, because there simply won't be enough staff to safely discharge them."

"We are deeply disappointed that negotiations have failed and that resident doctors will strike for five days at the most challenging time for patients," said .

"With flu cases up 50% in one week and the NHS warning that they are facing a "worst case scenario", these strikes will hit patients when they have been so badly impacted already with delayed and cancelled treatments, are struggling with worsening conditions, and will now be fearful about what will happen if they become acutely unwell over the coming period.

"Patients will once again be trapped in an endless cycle of disruption, cancellations, and anxiety.

"It's clear the current approach isn’t working. Independent mediation is the only credible path to a lasting solution that protects patients.

"Both the BMA and the government must now commit to independent arbitration immediately. This must happen now. This cycle must end."

The five-day strike, which starts at 7am on Wednesday, will be the 14th by resident doctors since 2023.

Resident doctors, formerly known as junior doctors, make up around half of the medical workforce in England.