Hospitals in England are preparing for potential disruption as the British Medical Association (BMA) ballots its 55,000 resident doctors on renewed strike action, demanding a 29% pay rise. The ballot closes on Monday, with results expected on Tuesday, and NHS leaders fear a majority vote in favour could lead to hundreds of thousands of cancelled appointments and operations.
Resident doctors, formerly known as junior doctors, staged 44 days of strikes between March 2023 and July 2024 before accepting a 22% pay rise for 2023-24 and 2024-25 from Health Secretary Wes Streeting. However, they now reject this year's 5.4% increase—the highest in the public sector—calling it “derisory” and “woefully inadequate”. The BMA argues that a 29% rise over several years is needed for “full pay restoration” after a 23% real-terms loss since 2008.
Streeting has urged doctors to avoid strikes, warning that renewed industrial action would undermine the government's pledge to cut the NHS treatment backlog and restore the 18-week waiting-time target by 2029. “We can’t afford to return to a continuous cycle of standoffs, strikes and cancellations,” he wrote in The Times in May.
Danny Mortimer, chief executive of NHS Employers, said health leaders are “dreading” further strikes, which would leave patients in pain and frustration. Rachel Power of the Patients Association called for urgent government-BMA negotiations, noting that the 10-year health plan to rebuild trust cannot succeed amid ongoing stoppages.
BMA co-chairs Dr Ross Nieuwoudt and Dr Melissa Ryan have urged members to vote yes, stating that “the vast majority are excited to go again”. A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said the government wants to work constructively with unions, but stressed that Streeting met with the resident doctors committee on his first day in office to prioritise avoiding strikes.
