Doctors’ strikes have become commonplace over the past few years as they walk out over NHS pay, hours and jobs.
Resident doctors – formerly junior doctors – are now threatening to strike after Easter.
Sky News looks back at when they have walked out before and why.
Politics latest: Starmer issues ultimatum over doctors’ strikes
2016: The first all-out doctors’ strike since 1975 took place in January 2016 after then-Conservative health secretary Jeremy Hunt proposed a new contract for junior doctors – any doctor below consultant level – which would scrap standard overtime rates while increasing basic pay.
There were further walkouts that year and a revised contract was eventually imposed, ending the dispute.
2023: All was relatively calm, in terms of strike action, for seven years until 2023, when doctors carried out strikes every month for five months from March under Rishi Sunak‘s government.
They argued that their pay, in real terms, had fallen by 20-30% since 2008, with the BMA demanding “full pay restoration”.
2024: January 2024 saw the longest strike in NHS history at the time – six days – over their pay erosion, and another in February.
After Mr Sunak called the general election, the BMA announced another full six-day walkout by junior doctors in June and July 2024.
After three months of talks, the BMA said Mr Sunak had “made no credible offer” to “restore pay lost over the last 15 years” and they were giving him a final chance to do so.
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Labour won the general election in July, and the new government offered a 22% pay rise over two years, which junior doctors accepted two months later, ending the strikes.
Junior doctors were also renamed “resident doctors”.
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2025: The strike respite was short-lived as tensions continued over pay restoration.
Further issues included bottlenecks in speciality training posts and growing employment insecurity for early-career doctors, who said there are not enough jobs for them.
This led to three new rounds of strikes in July, November and December 2025.
2026: Resident doctors are now threatening to strike for six days from 7 April, bringing the number of strikes since 2023 to 15.
Sir Keir Starmer accused the BMA of rejecting a “historic deal” that would have delivered “another above-inflation pay rise this year” of 3.5% to bring their total pay rise since 2023 to 25.5%.
The BMA said global events such as the Iran war, plus the rising cost of living, mean doctors are facing further pay erosion, causing them to leave the UK to work elsewhere.
