The Government knows how to avert strike action – by setting out a credible path to pay restoration.
Even though more than 90% of you voted in favour of taking action, it’s clear they are not prepared to do this.
The BMA is now calling for a full walkout of resident doctors in England, beginning Friday 25 July.
This means we are asking all resident doctors to:
- Not begin any shift that is due to start after 06.59am on Friday 25 July
- Or before 06.59 on Wednesday 30 July.
If you are working the Thursday night shift and finish after 7am on the Friday, you should finish your shift and hand over as usual.
Read our strike guidance
- Guidance for resident doctors during industrial action
- Guidance for Consultants and SAS doctors during industrial action

Ballot results
Turnout: 55.32%
Entitled to vote: 53,766
Number of votes: 29,741
Yes votes: 26,766 (90.05%)
No votes: 2,956 (9.95%)
Spoiled or invalid ballots: 19
You did it
A resounding majority of you voted in favour of taking strike action to continue the fight for pay restoration.
The Government can now be under no illusion as to the strength of feeling on the issue.
You’ve had enough of being undervalued. You don’t want to have to wait 12 years for your pay to be restored. And you’re prepared to strike again to deliver that message to Government.
It’s time for Wes Streeting to find a credible path to pay restoration.
Resident doctor pay is still down by a fifth: enough is enough
With the DDRB award, pay erosion against RPI will be at 21%. Or, put another way, resident doctors are still working a fifth of their time for free.
A pay uplift of 26% is needed to reverse it.
A brief history of our campaign
After 11 rounds of historic strike action, we reached a deal with Government in September 2024 that started a journey towards pay restoration.
But the deal with Government was just the first step.
As of 18 September, all references to junior doctors in BMA communications have been changed to ‘resident doctors’.
Making up nearly 25% of all doctors in the UK, this cohort will now have a title that better reflects their huge range of skills and responsibilities.
Find out more about why junior doctors are now known as 'resident doctors'.