Dr David Farren<\/a> is chair of the BMA\u2019s Northern Ireland consultants committee.<\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s an unprecedented move in Northern Ireland. It\u2019s the first time that all grades of hospital doctors in all specialties are being balloted,\u201d he told The Irish News.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat really shows the depth of feeling for hospital doctors at the moment, that their pay and conditions are not great.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat we are the lowest paid doctors in the UK and Ireland, that we are consistently having the same fight over our basic terms and conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr Farren said the BMA were announcing the proposed strike dates well in advance to give hospitals time to prepare.<\/p>\n
\u201cAssuming that we get a yes vote in our ballot, for resident doctors the strike action will be similar to what they\u2019ve taken before, a full walkout of their staff for 24 hours.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring those times, there will still be consultants and SAS doctors keeping patients safe.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the consultant\/SAS strike actions it will be a 24 hour action, however it will be a Christmas Day service \u2013 so we would leave the minimum number of staff in the hospital to remain safe.”<\/p>\n
![\"Junior](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/4OPEN5F2AZCAHMEUSFTETFBFOQ.JPG\")
Resident doctors in Northern Ireland last staged strike action in 2024.
\nPICTURE COLM LENAGHAN <\/p>\n
While the BMA has called the 3.5% recommendation from Doctors\u2019 and Dentists\u2019 Review Body (DDRB) \u201cunacceptable\u201d after what they say is 18 years of pay erosion, Health Minister Mike Nesbitt has said it is not even certain that can be awarded this year in the absence of a Stormont budget.<\/p>\n
Current pay scales listed by the BMA for residents (formerly known as junior doctors) range from a starting salary of around \u00a335,000 to an upper limit of just over \u00a370,000.<\/p>\n
Specialist, associate specialist and specialty (SAS) can earn between \u00a361,000 to over \u00a3111,000.<\/p>\n
For consultants, the pay scale ranges from between around \u00a3110,000 to over \u00a3145,000.<\/p>\n
While this is far above Northern Ireland\u2019s average salary of \u00a337,000, medics in the Republic can expect to earn significantly more.<\/p>\n
Resident doctors at the start of their career will start at around \u20ac43,000 (\u00a337,000), while consultants can earn up to \u20ac277,000 (\u00a3240,000).<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we look not too far away to the Republic of Ireland, they put massive investment into their health service to drive a public health service for all and they\u2019re reaping the benefits of that,\u201d Dr Farren said.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir consultant numbers alone have increased 42% between 2020-25 and every measure of health efficiency has improved.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir length of healthy life has improved, where when you look at Northern Ireland those same metrics are going down.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are not delivering the health service that we need to deliver to the people because it is under resourced and understaffed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need decisive action for the people of Northern Ireland to actually address this and to deliver.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Department of Health spokesperson said they are \u201cdisappointed at the decision of the various BMA committees to ballot for industrial action\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe Minister is committed to implementing this year\u2019s pay award as recommended by the Doctors\u2019 and Dentists\u2019 Pay Review Body as soon as the NI Executive Departmental Budgets are agreed,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe uplift recommended by the Review Body for 26\/27 is 3.5%, which is higher than that which has been recommended for other healthcare professionals working in Health and Social Care (HSC) and comes on top of an average cumulative 30% for Resident doctors, 25% for Specialty, Associate Specialist, and Specialist doctors (SAS doctors) and 24% for Consultants pay lifts over the last three years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile the Department will continue to engage with health unions, we must recognise that the financial constraints within which we are operating mean there is no room for movement beyond the 3.5% recommended by DDRB.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn recent months, we have seen progress with respect to our elective waiting lists. This has only been possible through the hard work, dedication and commitment of the doctors and other health care professionals working across our HSC.\u201d<\/p>\n
They added: \u201cA decision to take strike action at this time would put all those hard-won gains at risk. We would therefore encourage the Consultant, SAS and Resident Doctor workforce to consider this before following such a path.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hospital doctors in Northern Ireland are set to stage two 24-hour walkouts next month if a ballot for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":972752,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5011],"tags":[23525,5205,23523,23524,211,1144,13136,11191,16,15],"class_list":["post-972751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-northern-ireland","tag-bma","tag-doctors","tag-health-and-social-care","tag-mike-nesbitt","tag-nhs","tag-northern-ireland","tag-republic-of-ireland","tag-stormont","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116605662427334802","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/972751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=972751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/972751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/972752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=972751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=972751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=972751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Northern](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/M22QQMTQ25HBRFWFVHHQIPOX2Q.JPG\")
<\/a>![\"Tattle](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779261087_558_OC5YWOPUXZF7DAI7VJ5ZCSGUFM.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Dr](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/RD2TTLACERBDVK4PQBGOU7HDNQ.JPG\")
Dr David Farren, chair of the BMA\u2019s Northern Ireland consultants committee, speaks to The Irish News.