Patients are facing tens of thousands of operations and appointments being cancelled at the last minute after doctors announced a five-day walkout in an escalating row over pay.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting accused union leaders of threatening the NHS recovery, warning the health service was “hanging by a thread”.
Resident doctors have said they will strike on 25 July for five days, following a ballot held by the British Medical Association (BMA), as part of demands to secure a 29 per cent pay rise.
Health leaders have warned that strike action with just two weeks’ notice is “totally unfair to patients whose care will be cancelled at such short notice, just as the NHS was beginning to turn the tide on reducing waiting lists”.
Resident doctors, formally called junior doctors, want a 29.8 per cent pay rise, claiming this would address the erosion of their pay since 2008-09. Last year, they accepted a 22.3 per cent pay uplift over two years from April 2023, but they are angry with this year’s offer of a 5.4 per cent raise.
Mr Streeting urged doctors to call off the strikes, warning “the NHS recovery is hanging by a thread, and the BMA are threatening to pull it”.
“The BMA should abandon their rush to strike and work with us to improve resident doctors’ working lives instead,” he added.
The health secretary said he had written to the BMA with an offer to meet committee members to improve the working lives of resident doctors.
“Instead of talking, they’ve announced strikes. No trade union in British history has seen its members receive a 28.9 per cent pay rise (over three years) only to immediately respond with strikes, and the majority of BMA resident doctors didn’t vote to strike,” he said.
Around 90 per cent of doctors who took part in the ballot voted for strike action. However, only 55 per cent – 29,741- turned out to vote. That’s compared to a 77 per cent turnout in the 2023 ballot, which saw up to 23,000 doctors a day walk out at the height of the dispute that ran over 11 strikes into 2024.
During the walkout from 27 June to 1 July 2024, more than 60,000 hospital appointments in England were cancelled.
Emergency care and maternity care were not protected during previous strikes, but it is unclear whether the same will apply this time.
Daniel Elkeles, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents hospitals, warned that consecutive days of action with just two weeks’ notice “can only be harmful”.
“It’s totally unfair to patients whose care will be cancelled at such short notice just as the NHS was beginning to turn the tide on reducing waiting lists,” he said.
He added: “It shows a lack of respect for colleagues from many other disciplines who received lower pay rises and will now have to cover resident doctors’ work, and it is going to divert attention away from improving services to focus on planning to keep services as safe as possible.
“We need cool heads to de-escalate this and remove the threat of further damaging industrial action.”
Danny Mortimer, chief executive of NHS Employers, part of the NHS Confederation, which represents trusts, warned the strikes will have a “huge impact on the NHS and its patients”.
“While NHS leaders and their teams will have to fill rota gaps and rearrange appointments, ultimately it is patients who will bear the brunt of this decision and will be left waiting longer for treatments. It is disappointing that talks to avert industrial action seem to have broken down so quickly. But it is hard to see how the government could commit to increasing resident doctor pay further, particularly after they have received some of the biggest public sector pay rises over the last two years.”
He urged the BMA members to work with the wider NHS to deliver the actions already agreed upon that will improve resident doctors’ working conditions.
“It’s vital that the BMA also reflect on the way in which their last strikes were conducted to see if they can find better responses to requests for help so that patient safety is not jeopardised.”
BMA resident doctors committee co-chairs, Dr Melissa Ryan and Dr Ross Nieuwoudt, said in a statement that they had “no choice but to call strikes” after the government refused to move on its pay offer.
“No doctor wants to strike, and these strikes don’t have to go ahead. If Mr Streeting can seriously come to the table in the next two weeks, we can ensure that no disruption is caused.
“The government knows what is needed to avert strikes. The choice is theirs.”
Meghana Pandit, NHS England Co-National Medical Director Secondary Care, said the decision was “disappointing”.
The NHS also saw a string of strikes from nurses, dentists, consultant doctors and GPs during 2023 and 2024. Royal College of Nursing members agreed to a pay rise offer from the Tory government, which led to a 6 per cent pay rise for 2024-25.
It is currently consulting with its members on whether the 3.6 per cent pay award for 2025-26 is enough. If members vote that it is not, the union could also ballot for strike action.
RCN General Secretary and chief executive, Professor Nicola Ranger, said in response to the doctor’s ballot vote: “Nursing staff are similarly voting in strong numbers and telling the government to go faster in repairing a damaged NHS and undervalued workforce.
“Avoiding strikes by talking, negotiating and planning together is the only sensible route open to ministers. As the largest health care workforce, we give the majority of care and transforming the NHS won’t happen without investment in nursing.”
