The British Medical Association has announced a new round of strikes in England in the context of a long-running pay dispute.
Resident doctors will go on a five-day strike starting December 17.
This will be the doctors’ union’s 14th strike since March 2023 and is expected to cause major disruption, especially in hospitals.
Resident physicians make up nearly half of the medical workforce and range from doctors fresh out of college to those with up to a decade of experience.
They will move out of emergency and routine care and into senior doctors to provide coverage.
This follows a five-day strike last month which came after talks between the government and the union collapsed.
The government had offered doctors a deal that involved creating more training positions, improving working conditions and helping them with out-of-pocket expenses such as examination fees.
But the BMA rejected this, saying any deal must involve a pay rise.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting has maintained he would not negotiate over pay after resident doctors received pay rises totaling almost 30% over the past three years.
The union maintains that despite the pay increases, resident doctors’ salaries remain a fifth lower than in 2008, once inflation is taken into account.
Dr Jack Fletcher, chairman of the BMA’s resident doctors committee, said that as the government had not put forward a credible plan, the union had no choice.
But he added: “These [strikes] no need to move forward. Gradually increasing salaries over a few years and some common sense solutions to the job security of our doctors are within the reach of this government.”
The BMA’s strike mandate ends at the beginning of January, but it has announced it will hold another vote among its members.
