Resident doctors have voted in favour of strike action over pay in England, with the first dates planned for July, the BMA has said.
The first walk out will be from 7am on Friday 25 July until 7am on Wednesday 30 July, but the mandate to strike will remain until January 2026.
The ballot ran from 27 May until 7 July, with a 55% turnout among resident doctors.
BMA resident doctors committee co-chairs Dr Melissa Ryan and Dr Ross Nieuwoudt said: ’We met Wes Streeting yesterday and made every attempt to avoid strike action by opening negotiations for pay restoration. Unfortunately, the Government has stated that it will not negotiate on pay, wanting to focus on non-pay elements without suggesting what these might be.
‘Without a credible offer to keep us on the path to restore our pay, we have no choice but to call strikes.’
They added: ‘No doctor wants to strike, and these strikes don’t have to go ahead. If Mr Streeting can seriously come to the table in the next two weeks we can ensure that no disruption is caused. The Government knows what is needed to avert strikes. The choice is theirs.’
Health secretary Wes Streeting responded with a letter to the BMA resident doctor committee, which said: ‘As I have stated many times, in private and in public, with you and your predecessors, you will not find another Health and Social Care Secretary as sympathetic to resident doctors as me. By choosing to strike instead of working in partnership to improve conditions for your members and the NHS, you are squandering an opportunity.
‘Ultimately, we are all public servants. The public won’t see why, after a 28.9% pay rise, you would still walk out on strike, and neither do I.’
In response to the news, Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said industrial action was ‘hugely disruptive’ for the NHS.
‘The recently published 10 year health plan is an ambitious roadmap of how the NHS is going to balance the need for short-term improvement against long-term reforms,’ he said.
‘Resident doctors downing tools risks jeopardising both of these goals as it could see tens of thousands of appointments and operations cancelled as other staff – including consultants – are diverted over to cover staffing gaps. While there have been recent improvements in waiting lists, hitting the 92 per cent target is a difficult enough ambition without further industrial action.’
He added that it was ‘disappointing’ that the Government is back to where it was a year ago, despite making ending the strikes last year a priority after entering office.
‘There is also the risk that these strikes heighten tensions within different staffing groups, with nurses and other staff also discussing industrial action,’ he said.
‘A key part of making sure the 10 year plan is successful will be resetting the relationship between the NHS and the public. Turning around the perception that the health service is not there when people need it will be vital in the face of continued drops in public satisfaction. But further operations and procedures being cancelled due to industrial action is unlikely to reset the dial on this and could lead to further falls in public satisfaction with the NHS.’
Resident doctors accepted the Government’s pay offer in September 2024, bringing an end to previous strike action over pay.
