Dr Lucas O’Donnell, deputy chairman of BMA Scotland’s resident doctors committee, said the Scottish government was “tearing up” the 2023 deal with its latest offer.
He said doctors’ pay increases had been below the rate of inflation for the last 15 years, and that currently, doctors started on a rate of £17.40 per hour – which the BMA wants to see increased to £20.90 per hour.
“For doctors who are looking after, at times, 150 patients, at a time when you are the first responder to heart attacks, strokes, cardiac arrests, I don’t think £20.90 is some kind of largess or luxury,” he told BBC Radio Scotland Breakfast.
“We want to keep doctors in Scotland and unfortunately I’ve lost count of the amount of colleagues I’ve lost to Australia, to Canada.
“We had a deal which prevented strikes, we just want to keep to what the Scottish government had already agreed.”
Following talks on Monday, Neil Gray again disagreed with BMA Scotland’s claims that the latest pay offer broke the previous deal.
He added: “I recognise that they want us to go further and that’s where further discussions will be had.”
Health boards are making preparations to minimise disruption in the event a strike goes ahead, but Gray said “there is no way that we can avoid all the implications that industrial action will cause”.