Junior doctors agree pay deal to end strike action and name change

-Credit: (Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)
-Credit: (Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)


Junior doctors have voted to accept a Government pay deal worth 22.3 per cent on average over two years, bringing to an end strike action after a long-running campaign. And from Wednesday, they will no longer be referred to as junior doctors as a name change to resident doctors has also been agreed.

The British Medical Association made the announcements on Monday night. In a statement, the BMA said 66 per cent of junior doctors voted to accept the deal.

The statement issued to the media said: "The BMA’s junior doctors committee (JDC) in England has accepted the Government's pay offer, with 66 per cent of junior doctors voting in favour of the deal.

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"Outside the pay negotiations, the Government has agreed that from September 18 'junior doctors' across the UK will be known as 'resident doctors' to better reflect their expertise.

"This follows a motion to the BMA’s annual policy making conference in 2023 when doctors voted in favour of a name change."

The BMA junior doctors committee co-chairs, Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi, said: "It should never have taken so long to get here, but we have shown what can be accomplished with our determination and with a government willing to simply sit down and talk realistically about a path to pay restoration. One strike was one strike too many.

A rally in Manchester -Credit:Manchester Evening News
A rally in Manchester -Credit:Manchester Evening News

"This deal marks the end of 15 years of pay erosion with the beginning of two years of modest above inflation pay rises. There is still a long way to go, with doctors remaining 20.8 per cent in real terms behind where we were in 2008. Mr Streeting has acknowledged our pay has fallen behind and has talked about a journey to pay restoration.

"He believes the independent pay review body is the right vehicle for this, and if he is right then no doctor need strike over pay in future. However, in the event the pay review body disappoints, he needs to be prepared for the consequences.

"The resident doctors committee, as we will be called, will be using the next months to prepare to build on their success so that future cohorts of doctors never again need to see the kind of pay cuts we have. We thank all doctors who have seen us through to this point by standing on picket lines and fighting for their worth. The campaign is not over, but we, and they, can be proud of how far we have come."

The vote to accept the deal on the table brings to an end an 18-month dispute over pay, under which junior doctors took strike action on 11 seperate occasions.

The deal will see junior doctors’ pay rise by between 3.71 per cent and 5.05 per cent – averaging 4.05 per cent – on top of their existing pay award for 2023/24. This will be backdated to April 2023. Each part of the pay scale will also be uplifted by six per cent, plus £1,000, as recommended by the Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration (DDRB), with an effective date of April 1 2024.

Both rises mean a doctor starting foundation training in the NHS will see base pay increase to £36,600, up from about £32,400. A full-time doctor entering specialty training will have basic pay rise to £49,900 from about £43,900.