Junior doctors set to strike again and cripple hospitals as soon as July despite 22% pay rise last year

JUNIOR doctors are set to go on strike again — despite a 22 per cent pay rise last year.

Union chiefs will ballot thousands of their members later this month.

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A fresh round of walkouts could cripple NHS hospitals as soon as July and last until 2026.

Yesterday the British Medical Association said that Health Secretary Wes Streeting refused to meet demands for another pay rise, triggering a strike ballot.

It comes eight months after junior doctors — now known as residents — secured a 22 per cent pay rise over the two years of 2023-24 and 2024-25.

As a result a newly qualified doctor’s pay rose from £29,400 to £36,600 in the first year and from £58,400 to £70,400 in the fifth year.

Last year’s deal ended 18 months of strike misery, which led to millions of hospital appointments being cancelled.

But the BMA is demanding “full pay restoration” for the fall in earnings since 2008.

That could see some salaries boosted by up to 50 per cent.

The union said three weeks had passed since it warned the Government of the “consequences of the absence of a reasonable, timely pay offer” for 2025-26.

BMA leaders Dr Melissa Ryan and Dr Ross Nieuwoudt said in a statement: “Resident doctors are not going to be ignored.

“We are going to stand up for our value to the NHS and to patients and we are going to fight to stay on the path set out for us by last year’s deal: restoration of our pay to the level of 2008.

“Successful action over previous years shows clearly that if that is what we must do, doctors are more than prepared to do it.”

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