More than 100 NHS consultants joined at the QE Hospital to picket for the first time in 10 years
They're striking for 48 hours over pay and conditions.
Thousands of NHS consultants are on strike across England, around 150 picketed outside the QE Hospital today in Birmingham.
Consultant doctors and hospital-based dentists are striking for 48 hours from Thursday until 7am on Saturday.
One consultant we spoke to said: "It's harder and harder for us to provide the level of care we want to and need to.
It's about the fact that if the system isn't funded properly, then it's not going to be there for us when were older and it won't be there for our families."
Health leaders have warned that planned care will come to a "virtual standstill", with senior medics providing only emergency Christmas Day-style cover.
Thousands of operations, procedures and appointments have been cancelled and are being rescheduled in the first consultant strike action in a decade.
It comes just two days after junior doctors staged a five-day walkout, the longest in the history of the NHS.
More than 24,000 consultants voted in the British Medical Association (BMA) ballot for industrial action last month, with the vast majority (20,741 or 86%) voting in favour.
The Government has told consultants they will receive a 6% pay rise but the BMA has called this "derisory" and said doctors have seen real-term take-home pay fall by more than a third over the last 14 years.
According to the BMA, consultants on a 2003 contract earn a starting salary of £88,364 in basic pay, rising to £119,133 after around 19 years.
The Department of Health said extra payments such as clinical excellence awards and cash for being on call would take the average NHS pay for consultants in 2023/24 to around £134,000.
NHS trusts have been planning how to manage without their most senior doctors, with Christmas Day cover meaning, in many cases, that consultants will be "on call" throughout Thursday and Friday.
A letter sent to hospital chiefs by the BMA and NHS England earlier this month said care will be provided where there is a risk of serious harm (often called life and limb cover) caused by delaying or deferring procedures due to the strike action.
This care may include urgent or time-critical services such as urgent palliative and end-of-life care, dialysis, urgent maternity care, mental health crisis care and critical cancer care, it said.
The letter added that consultant strikes are "different to previous rounds of industrial action" because "no other worker can provide cover for consultants, and other staff groups are dependent upon supervision from consultants to be able to work. Almost no activity in a hospital can occur unless it is listed under and supervised by a named consultant."
During the 48-hour strike, the public is being urged to dial 999 for life-threatening emergencies and to contact NHS 111 online for other health concerns.
GP services and pharmacies will be running as normal.