Resident doctors in England have voted to strike for another six months in their long-running jobs and pay dispute with the government.
Their decision means that, unless an agreement emerges, the campaign of strikes by resident – formerly junior – doctors will enter its fourth year, as the industrial action began in March 2023.
The British Medical Association (BMA) said 93% of the resident doctors who voted in their latest strike ballot endorsed holding a further series of stoppages. In all, 26,696 of the 28,598 resident doctors who took part backed continuing industrial action – a 53% turnout.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) highlighted that this was the lowest turnout yet seen in the five strike ballots held as part of the action. It was about a third lower than the 78% turnout in early 2023.
The ballot results showed that less than half the BMA’s total number of resident doctor members – 49% – had voted to strike, down 0.7% on their previous ballot.
The doctors’ union blamed ministers for the outcome of the ballot. The government was doing too little to tackle the shortage of training places for early career doctors looking to specialise in their chosen area of medicine, and not offering them the 26% pay rise they were seeking, it claimed.
“Ministers cannot be shocked that 93% of doctors have voted to strike after being recommended a pay cut this year by the same health secretary who promised a journey to fair pay,” said Dr Jack Fletcher, the chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee.
“And without thousands more training posts, the bottlenecks in medical training are going to continue to rob brilliant young doctors of their careers. Doctors have today clearly said that is not acceptable.”
BMA members on a picket line in July last year at Manchester Royal Infirmary. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian
Wes Streeting, the health secretary, has twice doubled the number of training places he is promising to create – from 1,000 to 2,000 and then 4,000 – to try to meet the BMA’s demand. He and the BMA held what the DHSC called “intensive and constructive discussions” last month on both the key issues, but they did not find a resolution.
Fletcher said the strikes could still be avoided. “None of this needs to mean more strikes. In recent weeks the government has shown an improved approach in tone compared with the name-calling we saw late last year,” he said.
“A deal is there to be done: a new jobs package and an offer raising pay fairly over several years can be worked out through goodwill on both sides, in the interests of patients, staff and the whole NHS.”
He urged the health secretary to adopt “a responsible approach” in the search for “a timely settlement with no further need for strikes”.
Streeting and Keir Starmer, the prime minister, were both highly critical of resident doctors before their last strike before Christmas. Their language hardened doctors’ resolve to keep pursuing their demands, BMA sources say.
Streeting has consistently called the BMA’s 26% pay claim unaffordable, even if spread over several years. The DHSC said resident doctors’ salaries had risen by 28.9% over the last three years, 22% of which came in a two-year deal soon after Labour’s 2024 election win.
It also pointed to fast track legislation to give priority in the allocation of training places to graduates of UK medical schools, which was laid in parliament recently, as evidence of its determination to resolve that issue. But the numbers promised are not enough for the BMA.
Each of the five-day strikes that resident doctors have undertaken have brought significant disruption to NHS services and cost the service an estimated £250m.
Matthew Taylor, the interim chief executive of the NHS Confederation and NHS Providers, said doctors should “reflect on the impact of further industrial action on patients, the difficult financial backdrop we’re operating in and the generous pay rise that has already been offered to them by the government before staging more walkouts”.
