Resident doctors in England vote to strike over pay

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/jul/08/resident-doctors-in-england-vote-to-strike-over-pay

by acrimoniousone

25 comments

  1. Kiss goodbye to those nice NHS reforms they were talking about.

  2. There goes any improvement in the NHS , and another step towards a government that finishes it off.

  3. Resident doctors pay is down more than 1/5th in real terms whereas the country as a whole is at break even compared to 2008

    If people really love the NHS like they claim they should write to their MP to get this mess sorted

    Best and the brightest students don’t want to do medicine any more, we will see the consequences when it’s too late

  4. They’re paid less than their assistants – the UK is a binfire.

  5. I get the principle of what they are asking for, but it seems massively unrealistic. Are other parts of the public sector taking the same approach? Because afaik it just seems to be the junior/resident doctors and the BMA.

    Downvotes but presumably nobody has an answer.

  6. Doctors have seen the largest pay erosion out of all professions in recent years, if we want to retain talent then we need to accept that significant moves towards pay improvement are made

  7. Cut all the waste in the NHS then use some of the savings on upping doctor pay

  8. Doctors are not the problem.. They are the backbone of the NHS and they are being systematically undervalued despite years of gruelling training, high personal sacrifice and enormous professional responsibility..

    Real-terms pay has been falling for over a decade and many doctors now face burnout, understaffed shifts and an exodus of colleagues to better-paid jobs abroad..

    This is not about greed it is about justice, sustainability and the future of the NHS itself.. The same government that says we cannot afford fair pay always seems to find the money for wars, corporate subsidies and tax breaks for the wealthy..

    If we truly value public health, we need to treat those who deliver it with dignity and fairness.. Otherwise, we risk losing the very people we rely on in our greatest moments of need..

  10. I think you should all go and search out the threads on here from Doctors about their pay. It’s very enlightening. You may well change your opinion.

  11. Huh I thought that Streating bloke had it all sorted. That’s what he was bragging about so many months ago.

  12. Support all strikes!
    You’ll never know when it’s your sector needing it and in a country with huge pay stagnation…

  13. Physician associates, a role developed to assist doctors are still paid more than many resident doctors while largely working Monday to Friday 9-5 without additional on call responsibilities – myself and colleagues are likely to continue voting to strike until this bizarre abnormality is fixed and training conditions are improved!

  14. Imagine not supporting the very people who keep you alive. Resident doctors strike over pay and rightly so. Overworked, underpaid & treated like disposable parts. If we don’t back them now we’ll have no one left willing to pick up the stethoscope.

    The government’s already importing foreign doctors to patch the cracks cause it’s cheaper than paying our own properly. UK med grads are leaving in droves for Australia and Canada and if this keeps up we’ll be outsourcing our entire healthcare system while pretending the NHS is still world class. Pathetic.

    You wouldn’t need imported labour if you looked after your own first, understand that.

  15. has there ever been a time where someone in the NHS hasn’t been striking in the last 5 years.

  16. I am a newly qualified resident doctor due to start working in the NHS at the end of the month.

    The prospect of being so significantly undervalued, overworked, underpaid, replaced by less qualified staff, and the risk of unemployment beyond my 2nd year of training, all has me currently debating whether to start my medical career or find a better alternative.

    This is after a childhood and adulthood of studying and working, plus £150k of debt, all to achieve my dream of being a doctor. A childhood dream has become an adulthood nightmare.

    I’m now contemplating switching careers to things like accounting or software engineering, where I would be valued and treated much better.

  17. This country is absolutely broke.

    Watch how the middle earners get squeezed again, to support pensioners/lower-earners.

    Why would you stay here if you could leave to a country that doesn’t kill aspiration?

    1,000,000+ immigrants coming in a year – majority a net drain to public services – it was always going to go this way.

  18. Doctors in Australia get paid nearly double what they get here. They are rinsed by tuition fees, abused a jr doctors and compared to the rest of the western world no super well compensated. No wonder the country is in a shortage

  19. Government has successfully deluded the public into thinking that pay is the reason why the nhs is so expensive. There needs to a national inquiry into PFIs, contracts and procurement. It’s blatant corruption. Somehow we completely glossed over the Covid contracts. NHS is a cash cow for private businesses. Its layer and layers of bureaucracy.

  20. Im a couple of years away from finshing my training and have been approached by some countries; starting salary £250k… Their response was “well thats starting and you are worth it – look at those 15 years of training? and 5 degrees”

    UK needs a serious reality check if it wants to keep medical talent and not have ACP/PA led care.

    I want to stay here but I need to be paid what im worth.

  21. Imagine thinking you can get away with not paying doctors even close to what they can easily earn abroad.

  22. People have to learn that if you study, work hard, get a decent job, contribute to society and keep your nose clean you will be caught and punished. This behaviour to completely unacceptable and has been for at least a decade. This government and thee last 5 have done and are doing their best to disincentivize it but we can and will go further.

  23. I think everyone in England should strike over pay. Nobody earns enough.

  24. We claim that ‘Doctor’ is one of the most sought after and aspirational positions there is when you’re young and going through school. That the very best need to go to oxbridge and through that, into medicine.

    And then we pay and treat them like shit.

    Hard to see it as anything other than another scam.

  25. There are a lot of problems with the U.S. medical system. But things like this is why a large share of U.S. doctors weren’t born in the U.S. School is expensive but even the lowest paying specialities net almost 200k pounds.

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