Resident doctors in England have voted to accept a new government deal on pay and jobs.
It comes after the British Medical Association called off a strike at the last minute earlier this month to put the offer to members.
The package includes standard 2016 resident doctor contract terms for all locally employed medics and an average 6.6% pay uplift to be fully implemented by April 2027. There will also be 4,500 extra specialty training places over three years.
Dr Jack Fletcher, the chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee (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.”
The first strike by resident – then called junior – doctors began on 13 March 2023. Wes Streeting, the then health secretary, issued a 22% pay rise in July 2024 in an effort to end the dispute.
However, the RDC sought a further rise, spread over several years, to make up for the erosion in the real-terms value of their salaries since 2008-09.
Thousands of resident doctors in England were set to stage a four-day walkout last month, which would have been the 16th round of strike action since 2023.
However, it was called off after the offer was made.
On Monday evening, the RDC said it had accepted the government’s latest pay offer, after 53% of eligible BMA members voted in favour in a referendum. Turnout was 57%, with 32,932 doctors voting.
The deal means resident doctor pay will be 35.2% higher on average compared with four years ago, the Department of Health and Social Care said.
The 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.”
