Resident doctors in England have voted to accept a government offer on pay and working conditions, bringing an end to a year of industrial action.
The decision concludes a dispute that saw the British Medical Association (BMA) Resident Doctor Committee (RDC) orchestrate 21 days of strikes since July 2025.
The new agreement includes the implementation of standard 2016 resident doctor contract terms for all locally employed medics and an average pay uplift of 6.6 per cent is set to be fully rolled out by April 2027.
The deal also promises 4,500 additional specialty training places over the next three years.
According to the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC), this package will result in resident doctor pay being, on average, 35.2 per cent higher than it was four years ago.
Sir Keir Starmer said on X that the deal will see “better career opportunities, and better working conditions for resident doctors.”
“Together, we can get on with delivering for patients and cutting waiting lists”, he added.
Likewise, health secretary James Murray said: “This is very good news for resident doctors, patients and the NHS as a whole, allowing us to draw a line under the disruption of previous months and focus on getting on with the job of rebuilding our health service.
“Because of this deal, resident doctors will benefit from a new pay structure, better career progression opportunities and a range of other improved conditions to support them as they rotate and train.
“Patients will be relieved that the NHS is entering a period of greater stability.
“But this is the beginning, not the end of the journey. I know there is much more to do, and I am determined to keep working constructively with resident doctors, all NHS staff, and the unions who represent them to improve their working lives and together build a health service that is fit for the future.”
The online vote for resident doctors ran from June 18 to June 26.
The BMA had also warned that if they choose to reject the deal, strikes would “have to escalate in intensity”.
Thousands of resident doctors in England were set to stage a four-day walkout on 15 June, which would have been the 16th round of strike action since 2023.
But it was called off on 13 June after the offer was made.
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 when a solution in everyone’s interest was waiting for us: more jobs for doctors, better pay for doctors, and a better-staffed NHS secured for patients well into the future.
“This is what constructive negotiations can achieve. Next time we hope they can be done without a single picket line having to form – all it takes is a government willing to think ahead and think creatively.”
He went on to warn that this is “by no means the end of the road for pay restoration” and says he hopes the Government will keep “this journey going”.
Dr Fletcher added: “I’d like to thank everyone who stood on a picket line, who organised, argued and raised their voice on the issues of pay and jobs.
“Your continued dedication and refusal to give in has moved us miles from where we started, and you should be proud. When we organise, we win.”
53 per cent of eligible members voted in favour of the offer, the BMA said.
The turnout of the referendum was 57 per cent with 32,932 doctors voting in total.
Dean Royles, interim chief executive of NHS Employers, said: “After such a long running dispute that has caused so much upset and disruption to patient care, all parties will be pleased that a resolution now seems to have been found and there will be no further strike action.”
He added that the “hard work of implementation will now begin” and called the timescales of the deal “ambitious”.
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