A five-day strike by resident doctors in England - formerly known as junior doctors - is to begin on Friday after the failure of talks over pay and training place shortages held last month with health secretary Wes Streeting.
The strike, which starts at 7am on Friday 14 November and ends at 7am on Wednesday 19 November, involves resident doctors from the Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust which operates hospitals across the county including those in Heavitree, Whipton and Wonford.
The walkout is the thirteenth round of strike action in an ongoing dispute between the British Medical Association (BMA) and the government.
In early October a BMA ballot of foundation year one doctors with a turnout of 65% returned a 97% vote in favour of strike action over training place shortages and unemployment resulting from those shortages.
The vote followed a ballot on pay restoration action held by the doctor’s union before the summer.
The BMA and Wes Streeting held talks last month but did not reach agreement. On 23 October the BMA announced it would strike, urging the health secretary to resume negotiations.
Royal Devon and Exeter hospital at Wonford
The BMA says there is a “looming unemployment crisis” with 30,000 doctors competing for 10,000 first round speciality training places this year.
A BMA poll conducted in July found that 52% of foundation year two doctors who responded said they did not have substantive employment or regular locum work from the following month.
On Wednesday Wes Streeting offered to double the number of speciality training posts proposed in July’s NHS 10 year health plan to 2,000 over three years – one tenth of the shortfall. But the health secretary said he was “not able to go further on pay”.
Last week the BMA said that the 2.5% doctors’ pay rise the government is putting forward for 2026 would represent a real-terms pay cut – with inflation running at 4.1% – and was “indefensible”.
BMA resident doctors committee chair Dr Jack Fletcher said: “We need the health secretary to step up, come forward with a proper offer on jobs, on pay. We need him to embrace change and make an NHS fit for doctors and fit for patients.”
Royal Devon and Exeter hospital at Heavitree
The BMA campaign for increased pay began in June 2022 after a vote at its annual conference, with its first strike action taking place in March 2023.
Six more walkouts followed before a nine-day strike was held either side of Christmas that year, the longest strike in NHS history.
Resident doctors then took further industrial action last year, including going on strike a week before the July 2024 general elections.
Shortly after the elections, the BMA entered negotiations with newly-appointed health secretary Wes Streeting and voted to accept the resulting pay deal, which covered 2023-24 and 2024-25, in August.
However in July this year doctors staged another five-day walkout after Wes Streeting “did not go far enough” on subsequent “pay and non-pay elements”. The BMA said it had received “a series of no’s – no to movement on pay, no to student loan forgiveness, no to any credible move forwards”.
Resident doctors – hospital doctors who are not consultants – make up almost half of all doctors in hospitals in England.
Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust advice on the latest strikes is to attend planned appointments as normal unless you have been informed otherwise.
Emergency departments and minor injury units will remain open throughout the strike but the public are advised to visit their local pharmacy or GP for medical problems that are not critical or life-threatening.
