Resident doctors in England are set to begin a five-day strike on Wednesday after overwhelmingly rejecting the government's latest offer to resolve the long-running pay dispute. The British Medical Association (BMA) announced the action following a ballot in which 83% of voting members opposed the deal, on a turnout of 65%.
The government's proposal, tabled by Health Secretary Wes Streeting last week, would have increased training places but offered no pay rise for the current financial year. The BMA dismissed it as "too little, too late". Dr Jack Fletcher, chair of the BMA's resident doctors committee, said the result left Streeting in no doubt about how badly he had "fumbled his opportunity" to end industrial action.
Streeting condemned the strike as "self-indulgent, irresponsible and dangerous", accusing the BMA of jeopardising patient safety at a time of "maximum danger" for the NHS. He also branded the doctors' 26% pay claim a "fantasy demand", noting that resident doctors had already received a 28.9% pay rise over three years. Prime Minister Keir Starmer described the strike as "frankly beyond belief" given the pressure on the health service.
The walkout, which runs from 7am on Wednesday until 7am the following Monday, is the 14th since the dispute began in March 2023. It comes as hospitals grapple with an early winter crisis driven by a wave of "super flu". Streeting warned that the strike could be the "Jenga piece" that causes the NHS to collapse.
Resident doctors are seeking "full pay restoration" to 2008-09 levels, arguing that their real-terms pay has been eroded. Despite the government pointing to recent increases, the BMA says the offer did not address the pay restoration journey or create genuine new jobs. Fletcher said the strike was "entirely avoidable" if Streeting worked with the union to produce a credible offer, while accusing the health secretary of "scaremongering".
