Our priorities
The NIRDC gathers the opinions of resident doctors from health and social care trusts or the Public Health Agency within Northern Ireland. We represent resident doctors in Northern Ireland to the UKRDC. Our priorities are:
Pay
Resident doctors in Northern Ireland are undervalued, underpaid, overworked, and lacking in training opportunities. That’s why we’re fighting for fair pay and full pay restoration.
Read more about our campaign to fix pay for resident doctors.
The NIRDC gathers the opinions of resident doctors from health and social care trusts or the Public Health Agency within Northern Ireland. We represent resident doctors in Northern Ireland to the UKRDC. Our priorities are:
- To communicate the activities of the NIRDC and UKRDC to resident doctors in Northern Ireland.
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To promote the policies of RDC.
- To encourage resident doctors in Northern Ireland to take part in the medico-political process.
- To help resident doctors take action against their employers, as may seem necessary by the NIRDC.
- To liaise with the BMA (NI) office and the industrial relations officers of the BMA.
- To monitor and ensure, to the best of our ability, the enforcement of current national agreements regarding terms and conditions of service at a regional level.
- Fair interpretation of resident doctors' contracts in NI.
- That medical posts established within NI are in accordance with such workforce objectives as may exist from time to time.
- #TakeControl - We want to encourage resident doctors to better understand their workplace rights and entitlements. Our infographic outlines some key workplace rights and how you can protect them.
Our people
Chair: Dr Fiona Griffin
Deputy chairs:
Oisín Fearon (Education, training and other issues)
Dr Steven Montgomery (Negotiations and issues relating to terms and conditions, the new deal, the EWTD and revalidation).
Take part in one of our free courses designed to give you the right skills to:
- break down equality and inclusion bias (CPD-accredited)
- value difference and inclusivity
- live our BMA behaviour principles.
Our meetings
We meet four times a year to discuss the issues that are most important to doctors in training.
These meetings are open to members of the NIRDC. Non-voting committee members can also come along and participate as part of the BMA committee visitors scheme.
Next meeting date:
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Thursday 5th December 2024 (online)
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Thursday 27th February 2025 (hybrid)
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Wednesday 7th May 2025 (online)
For more information, emails us or call 028 9026 9666.
How to join
There are many advantages to becoming involved in our committees. You can actively influence BMA policy-making and negotiations, represent your colleagues' voices and develop your leadership skills.
Each committee has a few routes to becoming an elected member. In the case of NIRDC, this is:
- Seats/term - every two years, elections for 36 seats on NIRDC take place for a two-session term.
- Timeline - elections are usually held in July or August.
- Eligibility - all junior doctors who are BMA members and working in a Northern Ireland health and social care trust are eligible to stand and vote in this election.
The election section below is kept up to date with details about any running elections, so make sure you keep checking it throughout the year.
Elections
There are four seats available for election in the Northern Trust.
You have until 2pm on 28 June to nominate yourself.
Nominees must be a BMA member and must be working in the NHSCT from August 2024.
Get in touch
If you are interested in finding out more about the work of the NIRDC, email us or call 028 9026 9666.
The BMA is working to meet the challenges that women face in the medical profession.
Stand for a BMA committee and be part of this change.
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'.