DOCTORS have voted to end NHS strikes in a breakthrough deal agreement with health ministers.
Resident, formerly junior, doctors in the British Medical Association, on Monday decided to accept the Government’s latest offer to end three years of industrial action.
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Doctors have been on strike 16 times since March 2023 Credit: PA
New Health Secretary James Murray has indicated he will not go soft on striking docs Credit: PA
Patients will breathe a sigh of relief after the medics accepted a deal for the second time.
They have walked out 16 times since March 2023, causing more than 1.5million appointments to be cancelled and costing the NHS more than £3billion.
The BMA’s resident doctors committee (RDC) in England has accepted the Government’s pay 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.
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Ministers said the latest offer would improve pay, working conditions and career progression.
The biggest difference from previous deals was the possibility of twice-yearly pay rises instead of annual ones.
Doctors in training have already received a salary rise of up to 29 per cent, bumping starting wages from £29,000 to £39,000.
They paused strikes for nine months after the first deal with former Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, between September 2024 and July 2025.
Dr Jack Fletcher, chair of RDC, 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…”
Dr Fletcher thanked “everyone who stood on a picket line”.
