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Resident doctors in England are being balloted for further strike action after criticising the Government’s latest pay offer.
Ballots began arriving on Tuesday, following the Government’s announcement last week of a 4 per cent pay rise for most doctors, with resident doctors, formerly known as junior doctors, receiving an additional £750.
The ballot will close on July 7, and a mandate for action would last until January 2025.
The British Medical Association (BMA), the union representing doctors, argues that this increase is insufficient to address the impact of previous pay freezes.
While urging members to vote for strike action, the BMA’s junior doctor committee co-chairs emphasised that negotiations with the Government remain a possibility.
Dr Melissa Ryan and Dr Ross Nieuwoudt said: “Last week the Government finally told us what it would do to restore the pay of doctors: almost nothing.
“Doctors have seen their pay decline by 23 per cent in real terms since 2008. No doctor today is worth less than they were then, but at the rate the Government is offering it would be over a decade before we once again reached that level of pay.
“As ballots once again fall through doctors’ letterboxes, we are simply saying: the NHS does not have that time. Waiting lists are too high, too many people can’t see their GP, too many patients are being treated in corridors.
“Doctors need to be kept in the country and in their career not in 10 or 20 years’ time, but now.”
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They continued: “We are urging doctors to vote yes to strike action. By voting yes they will be telling the Government there is no alternative to fixing pay – this cannot wait for different fiscal circumstances and a healthier NHS. The answer is to fix it today.
“While doctors continue to return these ballots however, our door is always open.
“Wes Streeting has made clear he knows the value of dialogue over division. Instead of repeating the mistakes of his predecessors, he can come to us with a solution now. Even if doctors vote for industrial action, with the right approach not a single picket line need ever form.”
The increase, recommended by an independent pay review body, is above the rate of inflation, which jumped to 3.5 per cent in April, up from 2.6 per cent in March and the highest since January 2024.
But Professor Philip Banfield, the BMA’s chairman of council, warned shortly after the Government’s announcement that the union was already considering strike action, believing the pay rise does not do enough to restore doctors’ pay after previous salary freezes.
“Doctors’ pay is still around a quarter less than it was in real terms 16 years ago and today’s ‘award’ delays pay restoration even more, without a government plan or reassurance to correct this erosion of what a doctor is worth,” he said.
Mr Streeting said: “I understand the anxiety and anger that resident doctors have felt and continue to feel about their part of the profession – over 14 years, they saw the NHS that they were working in slide into crisis.
“That’s why, within weeks of coming into office, I was determined to resolve the pay dispute and give resident doctors a substantial pay rise. That’s now being followed by another above-inflation average pay award of 5.4 per cent (which includes the top up).
“The result is that resident doctors have seen their pay increase by 28.9 per cent compared to three years ago. The average starting salary of a full-time Resident Doctor is now around £38,800 – up nearly £9,500 since 2022-23.
“I want to work in partnership with resident doctors to deliver the change that the NHS is crying out for. Together, we have made great progress – in the past ten months, through our Plan for Change, we have worked with staff to cut waiting lists by over 200,000 and put the NHS on the road to recovery – let’s not stop now.”
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In an interview with the BBC, the Health Secretary called on junior doctors to “vote no” and “work with the government”, warning strikes could put efforts to rebuild the NHS at risk.
“I don’t think strikes are in their interests, in patients’ interests, and I certainly don’t think it’s in the interest of the NHS overall,” he said.
Resident doctor is the new term for junior doctor and refers to more than 50,000 qualified doctors working in GP practices and hospitals, from graduates to medics with a decade of experience.
Resident doctor members of the BMA have taken industrial action 11 times since 2022.
NHS England estimates the walkouts led to almost 1.5 million appointments being cancelled or rescheduled.
