Only life-saving operations are likely during the two-day strike of resident doctors from October 18.

On first impressions it would be easy to take the moral high ground. Doctors, who hold our lives in their hands, going on strike?

Doctors are among our brightest and most dedicated professionals. For it to come to this shows how unhappy resident doctors in the public sector are about punishingly long shifts and relentless duty rosters.

The 48-hour strike from October 18 will involve about 3200 members of the New Zealand Resident Doctors' Association, most working for the country's 20 district health boards.

The industrial action will have a major impact on our public hospitals. Thousands of patients will have non-urgent surgery postponed to ensure life-saving operations can go ahead, and senior doctors will find themselves under extra pressure as they cover for striking colleagues.

Health boards say a Life Preserving Services agreement with health-sector unions will ensure some continuity and other contingency plans are being prepared. The public are being told to brace for disruption but have been assured emergencies will be covered.

It is understandable the strike, if it goes ahead, will alarm and irritate some. But the current system and its rostering demand too much of our younger doctors. They may be highly intelligent, compassionate and enthusiastic. But they are not superhuman.

The pressure starts at university and never eases off. The hurdles students have to jump in first-year health science programmes to be accepted to medical school is fierce. Study is intense and leaves little time for anything else.

The stress levels ramp up further once a junior doctor starts working for a district health board and taking on life-and-death responsibilities and hours of duty that have many screaming "enough".

Any junior doctor will have their own horror story of the gruelling hours they work. It's not uncommon for public sector resident doctors to work up to 15 hours a day on average, for 12 consecutive days, including seven night shifts in a row. By the end of that run they will be exhausted, at greater risk of not being able to think and act clearly, and possibly so over things that they will rush a diagnosis or suggested treatment.

The union wants to reduce the maximum number of days that can be worked consecutively from 12 to 10 and to reduce night shifts from seven to four. District health boards' spokeswoman and Whanganui DHB chief executive Julie Patterson says the call for strike action is regrettable and that the last offer turned down would have provided "some of the best hours of work in the world".

Work pressures are affecting doctors' mental health, their personal relationships and their ability to relax and take part in other activities. Clearly there are too few resident doctors. Funding priorities need to be looked at, as does also the question of whether some of their duties could be picked up by experienced senior nursing staff or distributed widely to other health professionals.

It is in nobody's best interest to be treated by a doctor too drained to do the best they can.