By Harry Mottram: The RUH and some health centres and surgeries across the city and beyond will be affected by resident doctors (formerly known as junior doctors) walking out on strike Tuesday 7 April for six days. The industrial action is part of a long running dispute with the Government over pay and the desire of the doctors to restore their wages to the levels they had 20 years ago. Since then their salaries have declined in proportion as the annual increases were below inflation – thus in effect a pay cut. The latest fall-out is over the way recent negotiations have broken down as the doctors’ trade union the British Medical Association or BMA for short feel the Government have ‘moved the goal posts.’ The association’s resident doctors committee voted to reject the offer on 24 March,
Resident doctors in England will strike from 7am on 7 April until 6:59am on 13 April, 2026, following a ballot on strike action which gained 93% of members who voted in favour. The offer from the Government had included commitments to reforming the structure of pay scale nodal points and pay uplifts for doctors successful completing their annual review of competence progression. But the BMA feel the Government has back tracked on their commitment to a settlement after more than two years of industrial action predating the Labour Government. The strike action decision comes as the Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration 2026/27 pay recommendations have proposed a 3.5 per cent increase for all doctors, below the RPI (retail price index) measure of inflation which stands at 3.6 per cent.
UK BMA resident doctors committee chair Jack Fletcher said that, despite weeks of negotiations, the Government had failed to deliver meaningful progress on restoring pay. He said: ‘We have been negotiating in good faith for weeks to try and end the simultaneous pay and jobs crises for resident doctors. Frustratingly we had been making good progress right up until the point, in the last two weeks, when the Government began to shift the goalposts. As talks progressed it became clear that the money proposed for pay increases was now going to be spread over three years. This is combined with today’s pay review body recommendation pointing to yet more years in which our pay, at best, barely treads water. We have made abundantly clear throughout this dispute that our aim is pay restoration, and any deal that did not move us substantially in that direction was not going to fly. We also cannot ignore that, thanks to global events, economic indicators now point to years of greatly increased inflation. We are simply not going to put an offer to doctors that risks locking in further erosion of pay at a time when doctors continue to leave the UK for other countries.’
The Health Secretary Wes Streeting said he could not offer resident doctors more pay after they were given rises totalling nearly 30% in the past three years saying that the deal meant “for the most experienced resident doctors, basic pay would have increased to £77,348 and average earnings would have exceeded £100,000”. New graduates entering the profession would earn on average £12,000 more annually than three years ago and the agreement with the Government he said has included 1,000 extra training places, which were to be created this year, were part of a package of government measures that would see a total of at least 4,000 extra speciality posts created over the next three years. Out-of-pocket expenses for things like exam fees were also to be covered, while progression through the five resident doctors pay bands was to be speeded up. However without the BMA agreeing to the wage offer of less than inflation this package was in jeopardy.
Should strikes go ahead, it will be the first time resident doctors in England have taken industrial action since a full walkout of staff between 17 and 22 December last year with the dispute going back to 2023.
At the last strike the RUH advised: “Patients, out patients and visitors should not make any changes to appointments or visits – unless the hospital contacts them. A&E is open as normal 24hrs a day. Maternity is open as normal. GP surgeries and chemists are open.”
They added that if you have a minor illness or minor injury, local GP surgeries and pharmacies are open. Otherwise for urgent medical problems that are not emergencies dial 111 – emergencies as usual are 999 on the phone.
Bath Voice and Local Democracy Reporters
The journalists are funded by the BBC as part of its latest Charter commitment, but are employed by regional news organisations. A total of 165 reporters are allocated to news organisations in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland including Bath Voice. These organisations range from television and radio stations to online media companies and established regional newspaper groups. Local Democracy Reporters cover top-tier local authorities, second-tier local authorities and other public service organisations.
Bath Voice Monthly Newspaper is distributed free to thousands of homes and some supermarkets – distributed from the first of the month. Harry Mottram is the News Editor
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