Resident doctors in England have said they will strike for five days from 25 July after voting in favour of fresh action over pay.
Previously known as junior doctors, the medics will stage a walkout from 07:00 on 25 July until 07:00 on 30 July – giving ministers two weeks to agree to negotiate their pay instead.
The British Medical Association (BMA) said it had met with the health secretary to try and “avoid strike action” on Tuesday, but that the government had “stated that it will not negotiate on pay”.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting called the move “unnecessary and unreasonable” and added: “The NHS is hanging by a thread – why on earth are they threatening to pull it?”
He said the strike was “without historic precedent” given the medics had received a 28.9% pay increase over the last three years, and were not in the interest of patients or staff.
The government was “ready and willing to work with them to avert strike action” he said, and “instead of responding positively they’ve responded with five days of strike action”.
He had earlier told the Times newspaper the walkouts would be “a disaster for their members and a disaster for patients” – and the public would “not forgive” them.
Resident doctors have been awarded a 5.4% pay rise for this financial year – which will go into pay packets from August – following a 22% increase over the previous two years.
But the BMA says wages are still around 20% lower in real terms than in 2008.
Its resident doctors committee co-chairs, Dr Melissa Ryan and Dr Ross Nieuwoudt, said they had “made every attempt to avoid strike action by opening negotiations for pay restoration” in talks with the government on Tuesday.
But they said the government had wanted to “focus on non-pay elements without suggesting what these might be”.
They said they had “no choice” but to strike without a “credible offer to keep us on the path to restore our pay”.
“No doctor wants to strike, and these strikes don’t have to go ahead.
“If Mr Streeting can seriously come to the table in the next two weeks we can ensure that no disruption is caused. The government knows what is needed to avert strikes. The choice is theirs.”
The government said on Tuesday that it would not reopen pay negotiations and that it could not “be more generous than we already have”.
A Downing Street spokesperson added that the medics had “received the highest pay award across the public sector for two years in a row”.
Danny Mortimer, chief executive NHS Employers, the body which manages the relationship between the secretary of state for health and the trade unions, said it would be “patients who will bear the brunt of this decision” to strike, adding that they would be “left waiting longer for treatments”.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch accused the prime minister of having “boasted that he solved the doctors’ strike” only for them to take further action.
Addressing Sir Keir Starmer during Prime Minister’s Questions, she said he had been “weak” in dealing with the medics.
Sir Keir defended his government’s handling of the NHS, saying it was “responsible for four million extra appointments” and a 10-year plan for the health service after the Conservatives “broke it”.
Resident doctors’ basic salaries in England range from £37,000 to £70,000 a year for a 40-hour week, depending on experience, with extra payments for working nightshifts and weekends.
That does not include the latest 5.4% average pay award for this year which will start to be paid into wage packets from August.
Resident doctors took part in 11 separate strikes during 2023 and 2024.
The action in England will not affect resident doctors in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, who negotiate directly with their devolved governments on pay.