The director of NHS Employers, Dean Royles, has urged doctors to avoid further industrial action for the sake of their patients.

As the BMA Council prepared for a meeting today to discuss the ongoing pensions dispute, Royles said that council needs to put patients “at the centre of any decision making” when they decide their next course of action.

Earlier this month thousands of doctors took action in protest against government pension reforms, which include moving from final salary pensions to an alternative a new career average scheme.

Although the 21st June protest was not a strike in the sense of being a full withdrawal of labour, doctors did not take on any work that could be safely deferred.

"The doctors' strike has pulled NHS patients into a dispute not of their making and no one wants to see that happen again,” said Royles. “Industrial action is not fair on patients and, whatever anyone says, it carries risks to them.

"Thankfully, planning by employers - with the help of doctors - kept urgent and emergency services open. But people need to understand that even the most robust planning can never guarantee patients' safety. Thousands of people were inconvenienced and distressed.

"Whatever the rights and wrongs of the dispute, patients are definitely not to blame. I hope that the BMA Council will reflect carefully and it will be at least another 40 years before the NHS sees further industrial action."

Royles also praised the “good relationships” between employers and unions in the NHS and said that both groups needed to work together to achieve the challenging and complex implementation of the public sector pension reforms.

Under the pension changes, doctors will have to work longer - until 68 rather than 65 – while employee contributions will increase to as much as 14.5 per cent of salary for the highest paid individuals.