Secondary care doctors in Northern Ireland are set to stage walk outs next month, as part of the latest strike actions around pay.

Consultants, specialist, associate specialist and specialty doctors and resident doctors will all be engaging in industrial action, with BMA Northern Ireland warning that such action could face further escalation in future unless meaningful progress on restoring pay is made.

Resident doctors will stage a full walk-out from 7am on 20 November until 7am on 21 November, while consultants and SAS doctors will provide only Christmas day cover as part of action scheduled from 7am 23 November until 7am 24 November.

Should action go ahead it will be the second time this year that the three secondary care branches of practice in Northern Ireland have been forced to down tools after taking strike action at the end of June.

The announcement of fresh strike dates comes following efforts by BMA Northen Ireland leaders to engage with Northern Ireland's health minister over finding a way forward on resolving stagnating pay amid increasing demand on Northern Ireland’s health service.

BMA Northern Ireland specialist, associate specialist and specialty doctors committee chair Clodagh Corrigan said that, despite the enormous strength of feeling among doctors, as demonstrated by previous strike actions, recent meetings with health minister Robbie Butler had not proved unfruitful.

She added that SAS doctors had no choice to but resume action, adding that members were prepared to escalate further if progress continued to stall.

She said: ‘We have been clear: to avoid further industrial action we need a credible offer from government that makes meaningful progress towards full pay restoration.

‘We met with the new health minister recently, hopeful that we could begin fresh discussions on agreeing a credible pay offer. Regrettably, this did not happen.

‘The minister was also unable to confirm if the minimum annual pay uplift for 2026/27 – one that has already been paid to doctors elsewhere in the UK – would be paid this side of Christmas, or indeed at all. We were informed that the decision ultimately lay with the executive.

‘Therefore, we have been left with no alternative but to announce more dates for industrial action and we are fully prepared to escalate action if no progress is made.’

Inadequate rise

In its latest report the Review Body on Doctors' and Dentists' Remuneration recommended a 2026/27 pay uplift for consultants, resident and SAS doctors totalling just 3.5 per cent.

This figure was subsequently labelled as woefully inadequate by the BMA given the levels of historic pay erosion, which has seen consultants paid 26.4 per cent lower in real terms than they were 18 years ago, with resident doctor pay 20 per cent lower.

Meanwhile, pay for SAS doctors in Northern Ireland is between 25.9 per cent lower for doctors employed on closed contracts, and 23.5 per cent lower for those on open contracts.

BMA’s Northern Ireland consultants committee chair David Farren said that failure to address pay erosion is impacting patients and the health service.

Strong demand

Dr Farren warned that lower pay rates made it harder to recruit staff while also driving existing workforce members into retirement or reduced hours, fuelling a staffing crisis at a time when the demand on the health service in Northern Ireland was greater than ever.

He said: ‘Pay is central to recruitment and retention of doctors and hinders the delivery of a sustainable and safe health service.

‘There is palpable anger among our members at continuing sub-inflationary, late pay awards while we work beyond capacity in under-supported services. This annual uncertainty over when we will actually receive our pay award reinforces the widespread feeling that we are not valued and leads to doctors seeking better paid roles elsewhere.

‘This ultimately impacts on the service delivery, as we have seen in workplaces such as Daisy Hill over the summer. It is unacceptable that our government continues to let this happen.’

Support for industrial action on pay was delivered resoundingly earlier this year through a series of ballots, which saw 92 per cent of resident doctors, 90 per cent of SAS doctors and 79 per cent of consultants back the use of strikes.

Last resort

Speaking about the latest announced strike dates, BMA Northern Ireland resident doctors committee chair Steven Montgomery insisted that action was a last resort, but one that doctors were ultimately prepared to take if necessary.

He said: ‘Doctors do not take strike action lightly but again we have been left with no choice but to stand up for ourselves, our patients and the future of our profession in Northern Ireland.

‘If the health minister is serious about transforming the health service, addressing our waiting list crisis and meeting growing patient demand, then he needs to value doctors by paying us fairly for what we do.

‘We would again call on the health minister to step in and resolve this dispute with a credible offer to avoid more strikes over the festive period and into next year.’