The long-running dispute between resident doctors and the Government has come to an end after BMA members accepted the latest offer on pay and jobs.
The BMA resident doctors committee in England accepted the latest offer, after 53 per cent of eligible BMA members voted in favour in a referendum. Turnout was 57 per cent, with 32,932 doctors voting.
The acceptance of the deal brings an end to the dispute in England, which has seen 15 rounds of industrial action take place since 2023.
However, RDC insisted the deal is just a step towards its over-arching goal of pay restoration to 2008 levels and noted that resident doctors’ pay still lags by nearly a fifth on that time.
The offer includes 4,500 specialty training places in the next three years in a bid to tackle the jobs bottleneck.
Doctors decide
BMA resident doctors committe chair Jack Fletcher (pictured, top) said: ‘Resident doctors have spoken. They have decided that the current offer is sufficient to continue on the road to pay restoration, and sufficient to address the absurd lack of jobs in the NHS. The strikes will now end.
‘These strikes did not need to happen. We spent far too long at loggerheads with the Government when a solution in everyone’s interest was waiting for us: more jobs for doctors, better pay for doctors, and a better-staffed NHS secured for patients well into the future. This is what constructive negotiations can achieve. Next time we hope they can be done without a single picket line having to form – all it takes is a Government willing to think ahead and think creatively.
‘We hope there does not need to be a next time, however. Because this is by no means the end of the road for pay restoration: even with our progress in the last few years we are still nearly a fifth behind 2008 levels of pay. It will need determination from Government to keep this journey going.
‘We are putting the pay review process on notice – if it cannot deliver continued pay improvements, then we risk once again falling back into dispute in future. And without genuine delivery on the jobs front, we will once again see training bottlenecks throttling our careers and with it, further discord.
FLETCHER: This is what constructive negotiations can achieve
‘I’d like to thank everyone who stood on a picket line, who organised, argued and raised their voice on the issues of pay and jobs. Your continued dedication and refusal to give in has moved us miles from where we started, and you should be proud. When we organise, we win.’
Disputes in other nations, including Northern Ireland – where resident doctors are undergoing a 24-hour walkout today – are still to be resolved.