Three main groups of hospital doctors in England are threatening to coordinate strike action in an escalation of their campaign for higher pay, the British Medical Association (BMA) has announced. The union will ballot consultants and specialist, associate specialist and speciality (SAS) doctors about joining resident doctors in industrial action.
“Should the ballots be successful, the government risks having all doctors working in secondary care in England taking industrial action during the same period,” the BMA said on Tuesday. Consultants are seeking better pay and shorter hours, while SAS doctors want increased basic pay, improved overtime rates, more annual leave and better career opportunities.
Resident doctors are due to begin a six-day strike on 7 April, just after the Easter weekend. Their representatives continue talks with the government to resolve the long-running pay dispute, ahead of a deadline to accept ministers’ last offer.
The BMA’s decision to ballot consultant and SAS doctors was prompted by the government’s decision to give doctors a 3.5% pay rise for 2026-27, which the union called “inadequate”. That award was also a factor in resident doctors’ rejection of what they said was the Department of Health and Social Care’s final offer. The new ballots will run from 11 May until 6 July.
The Department of Health and Social Care responded that consultants already typically earn £147,000 a year, and that “these are not grounds for even considering strike action”. The BMA consultants committee co-chairs warned ministers must question whether they can afford to have all hospital doctors with a mandate for industrial action.
