The British Medical Association (BMA) has announced it will ballot consultant and specialist, associate specialist and speciality (SAS) doctors in England over potential strike action, threatening coordinated industrial action by all three main groups of hospital doctors. If ballots succeed, the BMA warned the government risks facing strikes from all doctors working in secondary care simultaneously.
Ballots will run from 11 May to 6 July, leaving time for talks to avert walkouts. Consultants are seeking higher pay and shorter hours, while SAS doctors demand increased basic pay, better overtime rates, more annual leave, and improved career opportunities. Resident doctors, formerly known as junior doctors, are already set to begin a six-day strike on 7 April after rejecting the government's final pay offer.
The BMA's decision follows the government's award of a 3.5% pay rise for 2026-27, which the union called 'inadequate' and a 'crushing blow'. Resident doctors have been seeking a 26% pay rise over several years; negotiations broke down over the timing of £700m in 'progression pay', with the BMA wanting the full amount in the new financial year while the health secretary proposed spreading it over three years.
The Department of Health and Social Care responded by noting that consultants earn an average of £147,000 per year, with basic pay for new senior doctors increasing by about 28.5% over four years. It argued that these are 'not grounds for even considering strike action'. The BMA's consultants committee co-chairs, Dr Shanu Dattu and Dr Helen Neary, said ministers must consider whether they can afford to have all hospital doctors with a mandate to strike.
There are approximately 66,000 consultant doctors and 16,000 SAS doctors in the NHS in England, of whom the BMA represents about 36,000 and 7,000 respectively. Coordinated action could bring havoc to the NHS, even if strikes occur sequentially rather than simultaneously.
