First year resident doctors have today ‘overwhelmingly’ voted to strike amid a row over jobs.
British Medical Association (BMA) officials announced 97 per cent of those balloted —previously known as junior doctors — voted in favour of taking action.
The move could see the NHS face six months of disruption.
A third (34 per cent) of resident doctors responding to a BMA survey, which closed today, said they had no substantive employment or regular work from August 2025.
This rose to more than half (52 per cent) among second year doctors.
The BMA said no strikes are currently planned, but talks with the Government on pay ‘will now have to produce a solution on jobs as well as the 21 per cent pay erosion resident doctors have endured since 2008 to avoid future action’.
Resident doctors have already taken industrial action 12 times since 2023, crippling services and forcing health bosses to cancel an estimated 1.5million appointments.
Dr Jack Fletcher, chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee, said: ‘Doctors have spoken clearly: they won’t accept that they face a career of insecurity at a time when the demand for doctors is huge.
‘Yet successive governments have been unable to embrace the changes both doctors and patients are crying out for.
‘It makes no sense that despite the need to bring down waiting lists and increase capacity for patients to be seen, thousands of willing and skilled doctors are unable to find the work to begin treating them.
‘The NHS 10 Year Plan currently offers a paltry 1,000 training extra places when there are already 20,000 more applicants than places.
‘The result of today’s ballot makes it clear that the Government will now need to step up to the plate.
‘By putting these two disputes — pay and jobs — together, we are now giving Government a chance to create a plan that supports and develops the workforce of the next generation.
‘Patients need doctors to have jobs. Doctors need to know they will have jobs. And they need to know they will be paid what they’re worth.
‘We do not want to have to strike, but we will if we are left with no choice.
‘The Government has the power to end both of these disputes now: it must use this opportunity to make the changes that are desperately needed.’
Responding to the announcement today, health minister Stephen Kinnock said: ‘Training bottlenecks are a very real issue for resident doctors, which is why the government is already working on a range of measures to tackle them.
‘We are creating 1,000 additional training places, taking steps to prioritise UK medical graduates and conducting a review of postgraduate training to make sure the system works for doctors.
‘The result is that current first-year doctors will emerge from their foundation training into a very different professional landscape from that which exists today.
‘Striking over something the government is engaging with the BMA on would be both needless and counterproductive.
‘It risks setting back the progress we are already making on rebuilding the NHS and improving the training experience for resident doctors.
‘I would urge the BMA and their new leadership to continue to work with the government, rather than opting for more damaging strikes, which will harm patients, doctors themselves and the NHS as a whole.’
During their first foundation year after finishing their medical degree, resident doctors in England earn a basic salary of £38,831. In their second year, this rises to £44,439.
Medics are often expected to work night shifts, weekends and longer hours for extra payments.
After eight years or more as a resident doctor, salaries can progress to around £70,000.
The BMA claimed first year resident doctor pay is 21 per cent lower in real terms than it was in 2008.
It wants pay for the group to be brought back in line with the level it was at 17 years ago, when they say their value of their pay started to be eroded.
The claim is based on a measure of inflation called the Retail Price Index (RPI) — this includes housing costs and shows higher price increases than some other inflation measures.
The BMA points out that many resident doctors have large student loans and that interest on these is calculated using RPI.
However, the government says RPI is outdated.
Instead, it uses the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) to calculate inflation and pay increases.
CPI looks at the cost of goods and services based on a basket of household items.
Using the CPI measure, the government says resident doctors’ current pay is fair.
Analysis from health think tank the Nuffield Trust has suggested that pay has fallen 5 per cent since 2008 if CPI is used.
Earlier this year, a YouGov poll also found that 48 per cent of Britons oppose resident doctors going on strike, while 39 per cent support them taking action.
YouGov said this ‘marks a shift in opinion’ of public support of striking junior doctors last summer, when the majority of Britons — 52 per cent — said they supported the action.
