Resident Doctor & Junior Doctors’ Strikes in the UK - Medical Interview NHS Hot Topics

Updated July 2026: resident doctors in England narrowly voted (53% in favour, 57% turnout) to accept the government's revised pay-and-jobs offer, ending the England dispute on 26 June 2026 after 15 rounds of strikes since 2023. Resident doctors in Northern Ireland remain in dispute and began a fresh 24-hour walkout on 29 June 2026.

You will need to provide some examples of hot topics you can apply during your medical school interviews. Here you will learn everything you need to know about the ongoing resident doctors’ strikes in the UK and how they fit in with other NHS healthcare worker strikes in the UK.

The industrial action by resident doctors in England, which had paused after the September 2024 pay deal, reignited in 2025 over pay restoration and, crucially, a growing jobs and training crisis. Resident doctors staged five-day strikes on 25-30 July, 14-19 October and 17-22 December 2025, followed by 7-13 April 2026. A planned 15-19 June 2026 strike was then called off so members could vote on a revised government offer.

The industrial action by resident doctors in England, which had paused after the September 2024 pay deal, reignited in 2025 over pay restoration and, crucially, a growing jobs and training crisis. Resident doctors staged five-day strikes on 25-30 July, 14-19 November and 17-22 December 2025, followed by 7-13 April 2026. A planned 15-19 June 2026 strike was then called off so members could vote on a revised government offer, which they narrowly voted to accept on 26 June 2026 - ending the strikes in England.

This includes the ethical implications and some example medicine interview questions and model answers for you to look at. Combine your reading here with medicine interview tutoring to boost your answers and delivery.

Summary of 2023 & 2024 Junior Doctors’ Strikes in the UK for Medical Interviews

1. The campaign group “Doctors Vote” was formed in 2021 following conversations between junior doctors on social media
2. Resident doctors (then called junior doctors) in England first went on strike in March 2023. After the September 2024 pay deal paused the dispute, industrial action resumed in 2025, driven by a failure to agree on both pay restoration and the crisis in speciality training places. Five-day strikes followed in July, November and December 2025 and April 2026 before a June 2026 strike was called off for a referendum, in which members narrowly voted to accept a revised offer, ending the England dispute.
3. Striking doctors are seeking full pay restoration to 2008 levels. The BMA argues resident doctors' pay has been cut by around 21% in real terms since 2008/09 (on the RPI measure), which it says requires a roughly 29% uplift to reverse. This figure is contested: analysis with the Royal Statistical Society and CPI-based measures suggest a smaller real-terms fall, and the government calls the demand unaffordable.
4. During junior doctors’ strikes, consultants have been cancelling elective work and covering the wards instead
5. Controversy has arisen surrounding whether it is ethical for doctors to strike, as well as how the strikes are being covered in the press
6. The 2023-2024 round of industrial action ended in September 2024 when members accepted a pay offer from the new Labour government, negotiated with Health Secretary Wes Streeting. Cumulatively this amounted to roughly a 22% real-terms pay recovery over two years (a further 4.05% for 2023/24 plus an average of around 8% for 2024/25). It was also in September 2024 that the BMA formally renamed junior doctors as resident doctors, reflecting that the term covers all doctors in training, some with many years of experience.

Resident Doctor (Junior Doctor) Strike Dates 2023-2026

1. 13th - 16th March 2023
2. 11th - 16th April 2023
3. 14th - 16th June 2023
4. 13th - 18th July 2023
5. 20th -23rd September 2023
6. 2nd - 4th October 2023
7. 20th - 22nd December 2023
8. 3rd - 9th January 2024
9. 24th - 28th February 2024
10. 25th - 30th July 2025
11. 14th - 19th November 2025
12. 17th - 22nd December 2025
13. 7th - 13th April 2026

👉🏻 Read more: MMI Medicine Interview Tips Guide

What do I Need to Know About the UK Resident Doctor and Junior Doctors’ Strikes for Medical School Interviews?

Why are resident doctors in the UK striking? (Pay and jobs)

The strikes are now due to a two-pronged dispute:

1. Pay Restoration

2. The Jobs and Training Crisis

Pay Restoration

The dispute has its roots in the cost-of-living crisis: RPI inflation peaked at around 13.4% in early 2023, sharply accelerating the real-terms erosion of doctors' pay. Although inflation has since fallen back closer to target by 2026, the BMA argues the cumulative cut since 2008 has not been reversed, which is why pay restoration remains the central demand.

When measured against RPI inflation, the BMA says resident doctors are around 21% worse off than in 2008/09, requiring roughly a 29% rise to restore. Critics argue RPI overstates inflation and that the CPI-based fall is far smaller (under 5% on some measures); Royal Statistical Society analysis suggests a real-terms fall closer to 6-7%. The BMA maintains RPI better reflects real costs such as energy, fuel and housing. Understanding this measurement dispute is exactly the kind of nuance interviewers reward.

Early in the dispute, the BMA highlighted that a first-year resident doctor's basic pay worked out at little more than a barista's hourly rate. Following the 2024 and 2025 settlements, a first-year (FY1) resident doctor's basic pay in England is around £40,190 as of 2026, with experienced residents on around £76,582 basic. Doctors also typically carry large student debt (commonly £50,000 or more for UK students, and far higher for international students) plus exam and course costs, which the dispute and the June 2026 offer partly address.

Junior doctors argue that low pay leads to low staffing and morale, and dangerous understaffing levels endanger patient safety. It is important to remedy this.

Note that the strikes have primarily taken place in England, where pay is set separately from the devolved nations. Resident doctors in Wales and Scotland have had their own ballots and disputes, so the position differs across the four nations of the UK.

Nurses are also striking, as you can read about in our article on their strike action.

The Jobs and Training Crisis (New Critical Issue in 2025 & 2026)

A major recent addition to the dispute is the severe shortage of speciality training places, leading to a looming unemployment crisis for qualified doctors.

The BMA reports that thousands of doctors have been unable to secure speciality training posts: in recent rounds more than 30,000 applicants have competed for roughly 10,000 first-round training places, and BMA surveys suggest around half of FY2 doctors have struggled to find a training job. The June 2026 government offer includes up to 4,500 additional speciality training posts over three years and substantive contracts for locally employed doctors, which the BMA put to its members.

Doctors who have completed their first two foundational years (FY2) are finding themselves unable to progress their careers, facing either unemployment or being forced into temporary "fellow" or "locum" positions without job security or structured training.

The BMA argues that this systemic failure in workforce planning is pushing doctors out of the NHS and that striking is necessary to secure a credible plan for long-term job security and career progression.

👉🏻 Read more: NHS Questions at the Medicine Interview

What is the current status of the resident doctor strikes in 2026?

As of July 2026, the England dispute has been resolved. After three five-day strikes in 2025 (25-30 July, 14-19 November and 17-22 December) and a further walkout on 7-13 April 2026, the BMA Resident Doctors Committee called off the strike planned for 15-19 June 2026 so that members could vote on a revised government offer. The referendum ran from 18 June and closed at noon on 26 June 2026, with resident doctors voting 53% in favour on a 57% turnout - accepting the deal and ending industrial action in England after 15 rounds of strikes since 2023.

The accepted offer is worth an average pay uplift of around 6.6%, fully delivered by April 2027, combining the 2026 DDRB award (about 3.5%, backdated to April 2026) with further targeted investment in pay scales. Crucially, it also addresses the jobs crisis directly: up to 4,500 additional speciality training posts over three years, substantive (permanent) contracts for locally employed doctors, and funding for the first two attempts at Royal College membership exams. For interviews, the key point is that the dispute has shifted from pure pay to a combined pay-and-jobs settlement - and that the BMA framed acceptance as only a step towards full pay restoration, with resident doctors' pay still nearly a fifth behind 2008 levels.

The strikes arose from a grassroots activist movement of junior doctors known as Doctors Vote, which was founded following collaboration by members of the subreddit r/JuniorDoctorsUK. Within mere months, the organisation’s supporters comprised 26 of the 69 voting seats on the BMA’s ruling council, and 38 of the 68 members of the junior doctor committee.

The original 2023 strike ballot saw a 77% turnout with 98% of voters backing action. Support narrowed in the 2025-2026 round: a smaller share of the roughly 81,000 resident doctors took part, and turnout in some re-ballots fell below 50% of members, signalling growing divisions within the profession over continued strikes.

In the renewed dispute, the BMA sought full pay restoration to 2008 levels, which it calculated as roughly a 29% uplift on 2024/25 basic rates (because reversing a real-terms cut requires a larger percentage of a smaller base). This means doctors want their pay restored to its 2008 real-terms value. The government and several independent analysts regard 29% as unaffordable and the underlying RPI calculation as overstated.

Some have called these terms “unrealistic”, whilst others maintain that it is the bare minimum that should be provided to maintain a consistent standard of living for junior doctors across the years.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting has criticised the renewed strikes as unreasonable, arguing that resident doctors have received among the largest public-sector pay awards in recent years (the government cites a cumulative rise of around 33% over four years to 2026, including a 5.4% average award for 2025/26). The BMA counters that these rises only partly reverse the real-terms cut since 2008 and that full restoration remains outstanding.

Earlier government offers, including non-pay measures and a March 2026 package (an average 4.9% rise for 2026 plus up to 4,500 training posts), were initially rejected by the BMA as insufficient. A revised June 2026 offer, worth an average uplift of around 6.6% fully delivered by April 2027 alongside job-security and exam-fee measures, led the BMA to call off the planned June 2026 strike and put the deal to a member referendum. On 26 June 2026 members narrowly voted to accept it (53% in favour, 57% turnout), ending the strikes in England.

How do the resident doctor strikes affect patient care and safety?

Opponents of the strikes contend that they are unethical due to risks posed to patient safety. However, evidence relating to previous NHS strikes has shown that there is no harm to patient safety from strikes occurring.

Legally, strikes are not allowed to risk patient safety to the extent that they could cause death or serious harm. As such, staffing levels are maintained at the minimum level possible to maintain essential services such as A&E, intensive care, life-prolonging treatment and time-sensitive diagnostic procedures.

Consultants were covering the jobs of junior doctors during the strikes, which led to tens of thousands of elective appointments and procedures being cancelled. However, some have suggested that the NHS may actually have been safer during this time as more experienced doctors were carrying out the tasks usually carried out by junior doctors.

The extent to which this is true is unclear, as there is no evidence to support or oppose it. Whilst consultants do have more clinical experience than junior doctors, they are also not used to doing the day-to-day work that they were covering.

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Key Ethical and Social Issues Related to the Junior Doctors’ Strikes in the UK

Is it ethical for doctors to strike? The interview ethics dilemma

The ethics of doctors striking is a classic dilemma that pits a doctor's professional duty against their rights as employees and their concern for the long-term viability of the NHS.

Arguments Supporting the Ethical Nature of Strikes (Proponents)

Striking is viewed as an ethical last resort based on two main principles:

1. Justice and Worker Rights:
   • Right to Fair Pay: Doctors have a fundamental right to fair pay and safe working conditions. Given the real-terms pay erosion (over 20% since 2008) and chronic understaffing, the NHS is breaching its ethical duty to its workforce.
   • Preventing Exodus/Burnout: Striking is an ethical action taken to protect the workforce. A tired, burnt-out, and poorly compensated workforce is a direct long-term threat to patient safety, which is a greater harm than a temporary disruption.
2. Long-Term Patient Safety and System Integrity:
   • Addressing Systemic Harm: Proponents argue that the current NHS state is one of long-term systemic harm to patients. The strike is a tool to compel change that secures the future safety of the health service.
   • Training Crisis (2025 Focus): Demanding an increase in speciality training places (the jobs crisis) ensures the NHS has the specialists it needs in the future, thereby protecting the principle of beneficence (doing good) for future patients.

Arguments Against the Ethical Nature of Strikes (Opponents)

Opponents focus on the immediate harm and the doctor's primary professional obligation:

1. Immediate Harm to Patients:
   • Breach of Beneficence: By withholding labour, doctors cause the cancellation of tens of thousands of elective procedures and appointments, potentially leading to disease progression and increased suffering. This immediate, preventable harm is seen as an ethical violation of the duty to beneficence (act in the patient's best interest).
   • Erosion of Trust: Strikes can damage the public's trust in the medical profession, undermining the essential doctor-patient relationship.
2. Mitigation:
   • The BMA legally adheres to providing "derogations" (minimum safe staffing). This means emergency and life-saving care (e.g., in A&E and ITU) is maintained to uphold the core principle of non-maleficence (do no harm).

Nuanced Conclusion for Interview

Why were junior doctors renamed resident doctors?

In September 2024 the BMA formally changed the term junior doctor to resident doctor. This is a high-value fact for interviews because it shows you are following the topic closely. The old term junior doctor covered everyone from a brand-new FY1 to a doctor with a decade of post-graduate experience awaiting a consultant post, which the BMA argued was misleading to patients and undervalued the seniority and skill of the workforce.

The label resident doctor reflects that these doctors are resident in hospitals and the community delivering frontline care, mirroring terminology used in countries such as the United States. In my experience as a GP, interviewers like candidates who use the current term naturally while showing they understand why it changed. A neat way to demonstrate range is to acknowledge that some commentators see the rebrand as a presentational move, while others see it as a genuine correction of a long-standing misnomer.

The ethical justification for striking rests on it being a last resort to resolve systemic failures (pay, understaffing, jobs crisis) that pose a greater, more enduring threat to patient safety than the temporary disruption caused by the strike itself. The key is that the BMA must ensure immediate life-saving care is maintained while fighting for the long-term stability of the NHS.

👉🏻 Read more: Answering Medicine Ethics Questions

How are the resident doctor strikes being reported in the UK press?

How do the resident doctor strikes link to wider NHS pressures?

Strong interview answers connect the strikes to the bigger picture rather than treating pay in isolation. The dispute sits alongside record elective waiting lists, workforce shortages, and the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, which aims to expand medical training but has been criticised for not guaranteeing enough speciality posts for the doctors it trains. The training bottleneck (around 30,000 applicants for roughly 10,000 first-round posts in recent years) is precisely the jobs crisis the 2025-2026 strikes targeted.

It is also worth understanding the role of the Review Body on Doctors' and Dentists' Remuneration (DDRB), the independent body that recommends NHS doctors' pay each year. Recent DDRB awards (for example, an average of around 5.4% for resident doctors in 2025/26) have repeatedly fallen short of the BMA's restoration target, which is why the union has pursued direct negotiation and industrial action rather than relying on the annual review. Referencing the DDRB shows you understand how doctors' pay is actually set.

Finally, be ready to discuss patient impact and the morale of the wider team. Strikes cancel tens of thousands of appointments and procedures, yet the BMA maintains emergency cover through agreed derogations. A balanced candidate weighs this short-term disruption against the long-term risks of an exhausted, under-staffed workforce, and recognises that nurses, consultants and other staff have all faced their own pay disputes.

One incredibly important topic is how the strikes are being reported in the press. This has been the subject of much controversy, and many junior doctors are displeased with how the strikes are being reported on for a few reasons.

First, some papers are using terminology that casts junior doctors as villains. For instance, the Telegraph published an article titled: “Militant doctors’ union plan to bring the NHS to its knees during three-day walkouts”, and has blamed strikes on “the militant Left”.

Second, the BBC’s coverage of the strikes has been particularly controversial. As a publicly funded organisation, the BBC is required by law to cover topics impartially. However, their recent article titled “Why are doctors demanding the biggest pay rise?” has been critiqued by the BMA as containing “a number of misleading claims”.

Third, doctors’ strikes are being compared and contrasted with the strikes of other NHS workers such as nurses. This can be seen in headlines such as in the BBC’s article cited above, as well as the government’s response to the strikes as Dominic Raab MP calls on doctors to accept similar terms to those that have been offered to other NHS staff despite circumstances being different.

However, there are also news outlets reporting more positively on the strikes such as The Independent, which published the article: “Junior doctor walked 8 miles through heavy snow to treat patients days before the strike”.

Top Tips for Medicine Interview Questions on the UK Junior Doctors’ Strikes

You could get questions about any of the above topics or strikes more generally, in your medical school interviews. Some top tips to consider are:

1. This is an incredibly complex issue that has become rather muddled in the press and the public discourse. Give your opinions clearly and rationally, whilst also referencing the surrounding discourse as best you can.
2. Be aware of the underlying economics of the strikes, and what the term ‘pay restoration’ really means.
3. Consider both sides of the issue, regardless of what side you fall on. A nuanced perspective that recognises points you may not agree with always makes for a more compelling answer.
4. By the time of your interviews, the situation will have progressed further beyond when this article was written. Be sure to do your own research and look up what the situation is like now.
5. Understand the historical context of the strikes, including the similarities and differences between the current strikes and the 2016 junior doctors' strikes. This will allow you to provide a more informed perspective on the ongoing issues faced by junior doctors and the NHS.
6. Familiarise yourself with the role of key stakeholders, such as the British Medical Association (BMA), the government, and the media, in shaping the narrative and outcome of the strikes.
7. Be prepared to discuss potential solutions to the issues raised by the strikes, including alternative approaches to improving working conditions, pay, and patient safety within the NHS.

👉🏻 Read more: MMI Medicine Interview Tips Guide

Example Medicine Interview Questions and Answers on the Ongoing NHS Doctor Strikes

Q: Why have junior doctors been striking this year?

I think the strikes this year are happening because of a really difficult two-part problem: it’s about both the money they're making, which is a fairness issue, and a massive problem with where their careers are going, which is a future NHS issue.

The money issue, which they call pay restoration, is the foundation of the whole thing. It sounds complex, but it basically means their pay has been significantly cut over the last 15 years when you compare it to how much things cost now - like a 20% real-terms cut.

I think it is about fairness. Doctors are highly trained and work incredibly hard, often under stressful, understaffed conditions. They're asking to be paid what they were worth years ago, not demanding a huge raise.

This connects to patient safety because when doctors feel undervalued, burnt out, and stressed about money, they start leaving. And if the best doctors leave the NHS, that’s going to make the wards less safe for everyone in the long run. They're fighting for retention because they want the NHS to have enough staff to function safely.

The training crisis is the newer, more urgent reason why the strikes have continued in 2025. It’s about the fact that once resident doctors finish their first couple of years, there aren't enough secure speciality training places for them to progress their careers and become consultants or GPs.

It’s a huge bottleneck. You've got literally thousands of qualified doctors competing for a handful of posts. If they don't get a spot, they're left in unstable temporary jobs without a clear career path, and they often feel like they have no choice but to leave the NHS entirely.

This isn't just bad for the doctors; it’s terrible for the country. If we can't train our current doctors, the NHS will face a severe specialist shortage in five or ten years. The doctors are striking now to force the government to fix this workforce planning failure before it creates a permanent crisis in patient care.

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Q: How do the current doctor strikes compare to the junior doctor strike in 2016?

The current resident doctor strikes in the UK bear some similarities and differences to the strikes that occurred in 2016. In 2016, the junior doctors' strikes were primarily driven by concerns over the proposed new contract by the UK government, which included changes to working hours, pay, and conditions.

The junior doctors argued that the new contract would lead to an increased workload and longer hours, and could compromise patient safety due to fatigue and burnout. The strikes in 2016 were similarly controversial, with questions raised about the ethical implications and impact on patient care.

In contrast, the current strikes are focused on the issue of pay restoration, training issues and addressing the real-term reduction in junior doctors' pay over the past 15 years.

While both strikes stem from concerns about working conditions and patient safety, the 2023 strikes emphasise the financial impact on junior doctors and the need to reverse the decline in their real-terms earnings. The 2023 strikes also seem to have garnered more widespread support from the medical community, with a higher percentage of BMA voters supporting the strike action.

It is worth noting that the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to the current situation, as the pandemic has placed additional strain on the NHS and its workforce.

These strikes highlight the continued challenges faced by junior doctors and the need for long-term solutions to ensure their well-being, fair compensation, and the overall safety of patients within the NHS.

Practice Mock Medical Interview NHS and BMA Junior Doctors’ Strike Questions

1. Do you support the current resident doctor strikes?
2. What is full pay restoration in the context of the NHS?
3. How did the junior doctors' strikes arise?
4. Why do you think that so many junior doctors are leaving the profession?
5. Is it ethical for resident doctors to strike?
6. How is patient safety ensured when junior doctors go on strike?
7. What can you tell me about the controversy surrounding how the press has reported on the NHS junior doctors’ strikes?
8. What is the BMA?
9. How do the NHS strikes impact public perceptions of the NHS?
10. What is the current status of the junior doctors' strikes?

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Conclusion

Overall, resident doctor strike questions give you a valuable opportunity to reflect on the ethical challenges in medicine and to demonstrate balanced, critical thinking. The England dispute was resolved in June 2026 when members voted to accept the latest offer, but the wider issue is far from settled - full pay restoration remains outstanding and resident doctors in Northern Ireland are still striking - so always check the most recent position before your interview and show awareness that the situation may have moved on.