Strikes involving resident doctors in England are to come to an end after a fresh offer to improve pay and working conditions was accepted, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) confirmed. Resident doctors voted to accept the Government offer, ending a year of strike action that caused major disruption to NHS patient care.
Details of the New Deal
The new package includes standard 2016 resident doctor contract terms for all locally employed medics and an average 6.6 per cent pay uplift to be fully implemented by April 2027. There will also be 4,500 extra specialty training places over three years. The deal will mean resident doctor pay will be 35.2 per cent higher on average than it was four years ago, the DHSC said.
A total of 21 days of strike action by the British Medical Association (BMA) Resident Doctor Committee (RDC) had taken place since July 2025. The online vote for resident doctors ran from June 18 to June 26, with 53 per cent of eligible members voting in favour of the offer. The turnout of the referendum was 57 per cent, with 32,932 doctors voting in total.
Government and Union Reactions
Health Secretary James Murray said: “This is very good news for resident doctors, patients and the NHS as a whole, allowing us to draw a line under the disruption of previous months and focus on getting on with the job of rebuilding our health service. Because of this deal, resident doctors will benefit from a new pay structure, better career progression opportunities and a range of other improved conditions to support them as they rotate and train. Patients will be relieved that the NHS is entering a period of greater stability. But this is the beginning, not the end of the journey.”
Dr Jack Fletcher, chairman of the RDC, said: “Resident doctors have spoken. They have decided that the current offer is sufficient to continue on the road to pay restoration, and sufficient to address the absurd lack of jobs in the NHS. The strikes will now end. These strikes did not need to happen. We spent far too long at loggerheads with the Government when a solution in everyone’s interest was waiting for us: more jobs for doctors, better pay for doctors, and a better-staffed NHS secured for patients well into the future. This is what constructive negotiations can achieve.”
Dr Fletcher added: “I’d like to thank everyone who stood on a picket line, who organised, argued and raised their voice on the issues of pay and jobs. Your continued dedication and refusal to give in has moved us miles from where we started, and you should be proud. When we organise, we win.”
Impact on Patients and NHS
Dean Royles, interim chief executive of NHS Employers, said: “After such a long running dispute that has caused so much upset and disruption to patient care, all parties will be pleased that a resolution now seems to have been found and there will be no further strike action.”
Thousands of resident doctors in England were set to stage a four-day walkout on June 15, which would have been the 16th round of strike action since 2023. But it was called off on June 13 after the offer was made. The BMA had warned that if they rejected the deal, strikes would 'have to escalate in intensity'.
Political Response
Stuart Andrew MP, the Conservative shadow health secretary, criticised Labour for making concessions to the BMA. He said: “Many will be relieved that these strikes are finally coming to an end, but at what cost? This is the second consecutive year that Labour has had to make major concessions to end these strikes, and the BMA is already planning further industrial action. Only the Conservatives have the team, the plan and the leader with the backbone to ban doctors’ strikes once and for all.”
