Resident doctors - and BMA staff - set to strike for after Easter

The latest round of industrial action will start just after the Easter long weekend from 7am on April 7 until 6.59am on April 13, the union said. The doctors’ union urged the Government to “act fast” to prevent the strikes from happening.

It comes after doctors’ and dentists’ pay review body the DDRB recommended a 3.5 per cent uplift for doctors. It will be the 15th round of strikes by resident doctors – formerly known as junior doctors – in England since 2023.

What has the BMA said?

BMA Resident Doctors Committee chairman Jack Fletcher said: “We have been negotiating in good faith for weeks to try and end the simultaneous pay and jobs crises for resident doctors.

“Frustratingly we had been making good progress right up until the point, in the last two weeks, when the Government began to shift the goalposts. As talks progressed it became clear that the money proposed for pay increases was now going to be spread over three years.

“This is combined with today’s pay review body (DDRB) recommendation of a 3.5 per cent uplift pointing to yet more years in which our pay, at best, barely treads water. We have made abundantly clear throughout this dispute that our aim is pay restoration, and any deal that did not move us substantially in that direction was not going to fly.”

He went on: “We also cannot ignore that, thanks to global events, economic indicators now point to years of greatly increased inflation. We are simply not going to put an offer to doctors that risks locking in further erosion of pay at a time when doctors continue to leave the UK for other countries.

“We are not closing the door on talks. We remain willing to negotiate and are eager to get a deal done if we can simply recapture the early positive spirit of negotiations. No strikes need to happen, but Government will need to act fast to prevent them.”

What has Wes Streeting said?

During a speech in east London earlier today, Health Secretary Wes Streeting highlighted how the Government chose to maintain as much pre-planned care as possible during previous rounds of industrial action.

He said: “Under our predecessors, there was an acceptance that when doctors go on strike, planned operations just get cancelled, as if these were pain-free, consequence-free cancellations for patients. We didn’t accept that and we made the safety case for maintaining planned care, keeping 95% of activity going, even during strikes.”

In a written ministerial statement, Mr Streeting said he formally accepted the headline pay recommendations. “This means over 165,000 doctors working in hospital and community health sector will receive a 3.5 per cent pay rise,” he said.

“These awards are above forecast inflation over the 2026/27 pay year, meaning that the Government is delivering a real-terms pay rise, on top of those in preceding years, underlining the extent to which we value our doctors and dentists.”

BMA council chairman Dr Tom Dolphin said: “Today’s announcement will be a crushing blow to doctors in England, leaving many to consider why they should continue to give their all to a system that refuses to value them.”

Earlier this year it was announced that NHS staff on Agenda for Change contracts – most employees apart from senior mangers, doctors and dentists – would receive 3.3 per cent.

Unison’s head of health Helga Pile said: “Many health staff will question why colleagues working alongside them have once again got a higher pay rise for no apparent reason. The NHS acts as one team and how employees are treated should reflect this.”

BMA staff set to strike over below-inflation pay offer

On the 6 and 7 April, staff at the BMA are set to strike over below inflation pay offers from the union. They have been in a dispute with the BMA over years of pay awards which have been below inflation.

The most recent pay offer to its staff of 2.75 per cent is lower than the latest DDRB recommendation, which the BMA described as a “crushing blow”. Hundreds of staff, who are represented by GMB Union, recently voted 96 per cent to strike on an 80 per cent turnout.

GMB senior organiser Gavin Davies said: “These strikes have laid bare the BMA's ongoing hypocrisy. Our members want to focus on doing what they do best: supporting their members at work.

“But just like the resident doctors they support, they cannot continue to accept another year of pay erosion while the cost of living continues to spiral.

"We are urging the BMA to come back to the table with a constructive offer that recognises our members' value."