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Thousands of doctors in England are to go on strike again this month, in a dispute over pay and job security.
The British Medical Association has announced that resident doctors – formerly known as junior doctors – will begin a five-day strike action that will run from 7am on 17 December until 7am on 22 December.
It is the 14th strike by doctors since March 2023 and follows a similar five-day action last month, which led to warnings that the NHS may have to cut frontline staff and offer fewer appointments and operations if the strikes continue.
The BMA said resident doctors were being driven “away from jobs and to the picket line” because the government was failing to make a “credible offer on jobs or pay”.
Dr Jack Fletcher, chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee, said: “With the government failing to put forward a credible plan to fix the jobs crisis for resident doctors at the same time as pushing a real-terms pay cut for them, we have no choice but to announce more strike dates.
“However, these do not need to go ahead. Gradually raising pay over a few years and some common sense fixes to the job security of our doctors are well within the reach of this government. It would ensure both the long-term strength of our healthcare workforce and spare the country the indignity of see[ing] unemployed doctors at a time patients are queuing up to even see a GP.
“This month, we’ve seen the full farcical extent of the jobs crisis, with second-year doctors applying for training posts being asked to provide evidence of experience well beyond what would have previously been asked of them. It is precisely this sort of situation which is driving doctors away from jobs and to the picket line. But it is not too late for government to get a grip on the situation.”
Pay for resident doctors has risen almost 30% over the past three years, including by 22% under Labour. But the BMA is arguing doctors need a further 26% increase over the next few years to make up for the erosion in their pay that has taken place in real terms since 2008, due to increases in inflation.
The BMA also said that thousands of doctors have been turned away from internal medicine training posts, with places now so restricted that candidates could have a PhD, have authored a medical textbook chapter and published a scientific paper and still not even get an interview.
According to the BMA, there were more than 30,000 doctors competing for about 10,000 specialty training places this year. It wants UK medical graduates to be prioritised for training posts in the future.
Previous strikes in the summer were estimated to have cost the NHS £300m.
Overall, the 13 strikes have caused more than 1.5m outpatient appointments and surgeries to be rescheduled.
The BMA’s mandate for strike action is set to run out in January. However, last week, the BMA announced it will ballot its resident doctor members on extending its mandate for strike action to August 2026.
The ballot will run from 8 December until 2 February and the union is urging its members show the government “we won’t be ignored”.
The BMA is telling its members: “While the government was prepared to increase the number of speciality training posts over the next three years by 2,000, this is nowhere near enough to address the jobs crisis. This is on top of the burden of huge amounts of student [debt] for resident doctors, and the fact they are paid more than a fifth less than they were in 2008.
“Now, the government is suggesting a substantive real-terms pay cut for resident doctors in 2026.”
The Department of Health and Social Care did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
