Correspondence

BMA resident doctor ballot outcome

Published 9 July 2025

To: Dr Melissa Ryan and Dr Ross Nieuwoudt, co-chairs of the BMA Resident Doctor Committee.

Thank you for your letter informing me of the BMA resident doctor ballot outcome and for meeting me yesterday to discuss the result.

I remain disappointed that despite all that we have been able to achieve in this last year, and that the majority of resident doctors in the BMA did not vote to strike, the BMA is continuing to threaten strike action.

I accepted the DDRB’s recommendation for resident doctors, awarding an average pay rise of 5.4%, the highest across the public sector. Accepting this above inflation recommendation, which was significantly higher than affordability, required reprioritisation of NHS budgets. Because of this government’s commitment to recognising the value of the medical workforce, we made back-office efficiency savings to invest in the frontline. That was not inevitable, it was an active political choice this government made. Taken with the previous deal I made with the BMA last year, this means resident doctors will receive an average pay rise of 28.9% over the last 3 years.

We have been able to make progress together on improving staff’s working lives. This includes a new exception reporting process to improve safety of patients and your members that will come into effect in September, and a review into how we make the rotational element of your training less disruptive to your personal lives and more productive for the NHS.

This government is taking steps to address the legitimate concerns that resident doctors have raised. Only last week, I announced that we will create 1,000 new training posts and will prioritise UK medical graduates for specialty training places. I know this won’t solve everything, but this will be a significant first step toward tackling the bottlenecks your members face in their career progression.

These actions show that we can make real progress by working together and without the need to take strike action.

While we cannot go further on pay this year, there is so much more we can do together to improve the lives of resident doctors and the wider NHS. In my time as Health and Social Care Secretary, we have made more progress in one year of working together on your concerns than has been made after a series of disputes. Strikes now will see the BMA Resident Doctor Committee turn its back on that open door. At a time when the NHS is finally moving in the right direction, strikes also put that recovery at risk. This affects patients.

I stand ready to meet with you again at your earliest convenience to resolve this dispute without the need for strike action. I would like to once again extend my offer to meet with your entire committee to discuss this.

As I have stated many times, in private and in public, with you and your predecessors, you will not find another Health and Social Care Secretary as sympathetic to resident doctors as me. By choosing to strike instead of working in partnership to improve conditions for your members and the NHS, you are squandering an opportunity.

Ultimately, we are all public servants. The public won’t see why, after a 28.9% pay rise, you would still walk out on strike, and neither do I.

The Rt Hon Wes Streeting MP
Secretary of State for Health and Social Care