Resident doctors in England have begun five days of strike action after rejecting the government’s latest offer to resolve the long-running dispute over pay and jobs.
The British Medical Association (BMA), and the health secretary, Wes Streeting, met on Tuesday in a final attempt to reach an agreement, but failed to do so.
It means that resident doctors – formerly known as junior doctors – will remain on strike until 7am on Monday.
The latest offer from the government would have increased the number of training places to enable early career doctors to start training in their chosen medical speciality, but not increased their pay for the current financial year.
Resident doctors, who make up about half of all NHS doctors, overwhelmingly rejected the offer in a BMA survey last week, with 83% voting against it on a 65% turnout. Of the 55,000 resident medics represented by the union, 35,107 took part.
The industrial action will be the 14th strike that resident doctors have staged since March 2023.
Dr Jack Fletcher, chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee, said doctors going out on strike were “making clear that they are willing to stand up for their profession against a totally avoidable jobs crisis”.
He added: “It is well past the time for ministers to come up with a genuinely long-term plan.
“If they can simply provide a clear route to responsibly raise pay over a number of years, and enough genuinely new jobs instead of recycled ones, then there need not be any more strikes for the remainder of this government.”
NHS leaders are anxious about how the service will cope with the strike. Prof Meghana Pandit, NHS England’s national medical director, said: “These strikes come at an immensely challenging time for the NHS, with record numbers of patients in hospital with flu for this time of year.
“Staff will come together as they always do, going above and beyond to provide safe care and limit disruption, but sadly more patients are likely to feel the impact of this round of strikes than the previous two – and staff covering will not get the Christmas break they deserve with their families.”
A Department of Health spokesperson said: “The secretary of state and officials met with the BMA resident doctors committee today [Tuesday] for talks to try and avert this week’s strikes.
“Every effort was made to avert strike action. While constructive, they were not able to reach an agreement.
“All of our focus will now be on working with the whole NHS team to minimise the disruption caused by the strikes.”
