A former NHS dental nurse whose operation has been cancelled twice due to strikes has slammed the government for letting the action “get this far”.

Junior doctors across England began a four-day strike on Tuesday in a worsening dispute over pay and conditions which threatens huge disruption to the NHS.

An estimated 350,000 appointments, including operations, will be cancelled as a result of the walkout by members of the British Medical Association (BMA), who are calling for a 35 per cent pay rise.

Rebecca Lawson, who has private healthcare with Bupa, said the strikes have meant an operation she was due to have this week to investigate severe stomach issues was cancelled due to doctors having to cover for the BMA strike at NHS hospitals.

The 43-year-old, who lives in Horsham, said: “I don’t blame the doctors because their wages are extremely low. I just don’t think it needed to come to the point of strikes because the government should not have let it get this far.

“I’ve been meaning to have this procedure over the last six weeks and it was cancelled twice because of strikes.

“Going private and needing a procedure and being constantly told it needs to be postponed or it needs to be cancelled because all the doctors have to come out of the private hospital and cover for doctors striking – it’s just a mess.

“It’s frustrating because you think, we’re paying for this to get away from the disruption of the NHS and we’re still being impacted.”

A new date has not been given for her procedure.

Mrs Lawson lived in Singapore for nine years and she said that when you needed a private operation there, you would be seen in three days maximum.

“Private healthcare in the UK is not as efficient as private healthcare in other countries”, she said.

“It really highlights how bad things are here.”

Mrs Lawson added that one of the main reasons behind her decision to go private was because she suffers from a permanent migraine from a head injury she had five years ago, which has left her unable to work, and found it difficult to get an appointment on the NHS.

“I’m paying £1,500 every three months for medication I need and there’s another medication I need that I couldn’t get a NHS neurologist appointment for,” she said.

“These are all drugs I should be able to get on the NHS, but couldn’t get appointments for, so it is having a huge impact.”

Health Secretary Steve Barclay said the timing of the strike was “regrettable”, and he accused the BMA of putting patients at “greater risk” after not agreeing any national exemptions for strike action for some services, such as cancer care.

“We are ready to have discussions with them but clearly a demand for 35 per cent – over £20,000 for some junior doctors – is not fair or reasonable,” he said.

Dr Vivek Trivedi, co-chairman of the BMA’s junior doctors committee, told the PA news agency: “Where we go forward is, of course, reserving the right for further industrial action if the government doesn’t negotiate with us, but that’s all we want them to do.

“We just want them to come to the table in an honest and meaningful way.

“The government has not even tried to meet us anywhere in the middle, it hasn’t given us a counter-offer at all.”