Resident doctors accept pay deal, ending three-year strike dispute

Resident doctors in England voted to accept the government’s latest pay and job offer, bringing to a close a dispute that had dragged on since 2023 and triggered more than a dozen rounds of industrial action across the NHS.

The British Medical Association said 53% of eligible members backed the package in a ballot that ran from 18 June to 26 June, with 32,932 doctors voting on a 57% turnout. The BMA’s resident doctors committee had already suspended strike action planned for 15 to 19 June while members considered the revised offer.

The deal gives ministers an end point to a three-year confrontation that repeatedly shut down services, cancelled appointments and added pressure to waiting lists in England. The government said resident doctors had already received a 28.9% pay rise over the previous three years and would get an average 4.9% rise this year, leaving them on average 35.2% better off than four years ago if the package stands.

Beyond pay, the offer includes reimbursement of mandatory Royal College portfolio fees and mandatory exam costs, a higher flexible pay premium for clinical academic resident doctors, and pay structure reform. Ministers also promised up to 4,500 additional training posts over three years, including 1,000 next year and 250 starting in February 2027, in an attempt to ease career bottlenecks that have long fed frustration inside the service.

NHS England said talks had been led by a small team including Sir Glen Burley and Prof Meghana Pandit, and told NHS leaders to stand down extra shifts and try to reinstate cancelled appointments once the planned June strike was called off. The health service now faces the harder question of whether a pay settlement can do more than pause unrest: the dispute exposed deep resentment over retention, workload and progression, and those pressures remain in wards, clinics and rota gaps across England.

The BMA said the vote drew a line under a conflict that had disrupted care and waiting lists. The government argued the deal will let the NHS focus on patient care and the wider task of repairing a system still under strain after years of industrial action.