Support the resident doctors' strike

Picture: picket line at St Thomas’ Hospital, London.

On Tuesday 7 April resident doctors began six days of strike action. This follows the break down in talks on this year’s pay offer.

The doctors, organised by the British Medical Association (BMA) have now taken strike action fifteen times since 2023. They have been fighting for full pay restoration — the union says resident (formerly junior) doctors’ current pay is 22% less in real terms than it was in 2008-9.

By the 2022-3 the BMA estimated the loss had risen to 29% and this led to the still ongoing campaign.

In September 2024 the union agreed to a deal with the Labour government which meant pay was uplifted by an average of 22.3% over two years but that did bring about full restore pay. The BMA say the new offer – an average of 5.4% across all the pay grades — will mean a real terms cut and that a 26% uplift is required to restore pay.

The dispute has also been over the huge shortage of specialist training posts for newly qualified doctors. For example there are five applications for each GP training post — at a time when there is a critical shortage of GPs.

The feeling on the picket line on 7 April at St Thomas’ in London was that the strike is solid. There is some pressure on doctors not to strike — from a minority of consultants. The media, Wes Streeting, other right wing commentators will bemoan the effect on waiting lists, but resident doctors are not the reason why waiting lists have grown. Underfunding and a lack of all health workers is the reason.

The fact is that the resident doctors by striking are also fighting to rebuild the NHS — to make sure there are enough doctors in specialities and to stop doctors leaving the NHS.