Resident Doctor & Junior Doctors’ Strikes in the UK - Medical Interview NHS Hot Topics
- Akash Gandhi
- Mar 19, 2023
- 12 min read
Updated: Dec 8
Updated for 2025/2026 resident doctors' strikes
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, resumed in July 2025 and has continued due to a lack of agreement on pay and, crucially, a growing jobs and training crisis.
The strikes in 2025 have focused on securing a viable deal that addresses both pay restoration and job security.
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
The campaign group “Doctors Vote” was formed in 2021 following conversations between junior doctors on social media
Resident doctors in England first went on strike in March 2023. After a brief pause, the industrial action resumed in July 2025 and has continued into late 2025, driven by a failure to agree on both pay and the crisis in speciality training places.
Striking doctors are seeking pay restoration to pre-2008 austerity measures - doctors’ pay in real terms has been cut by 26% since the Conservatives came to power
During junior doctors’ strikes, consultants have been cancelling elective work and covering the wards instead
Controversy has arisen surrounding whether it is ethical for doctors to strike, as well as how the strikes are being covered in the press
The industrial action by junior doctors in England ended in September 2024 after they accepted a pay offer from the government. The offer included a 4.05% increase for 2023/24, backdated to April 2023.
Confirmed NHS Junior Doctor Strike Dates In The UK [Updated]
13th - 16th March 2023
11th - 16th April 2023
14th - 16th June 2023
13th - 18th July 2023
20th -23rd September 2023
2nd - 4th October 2023
20th - 22nd December 2023
3rd - 9th January 2024
24th - 28th February 2024
25th - 30th July 2025
14th - 19th November 2025
17th - 22nd December 2025
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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?
The strikes are now due to a two-pronged dispute:
1. Pay Restoration
2. The Jobs and Training Crisis
Pay Restoration
The UK is currently in a cost-of-living crisis. Inflation, per the Retail Price Index, was 13.4% in both December and January. This means that the cost of living - including everything from food and clothes to mortgage payments and interest on loans - was calculated to be 13.4% higher than at the same time last year.
When considering pay increases against inflation, junior doctors are now 26% worse off than they were 15 years ago. High levels of inflation have accelerated this. Some have criticised doctors for using the RPI rather than CPI (consumer price index) as a measure of inflation, but doctors maintain that it is more accurate as it uniquely includes energy, fuel and housing costs.
Junior doctors can be paid just £14.09 per hour - less than the £14.10 per hour that workers at coffee and sandwich shop Pret a Manger earn. They are also likely to have significant amounts of student debt, which can range from around £50,000 for English students to almost £200,000 for international students - plus living costs.
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 are currently only taking place in England, with votes on strike action in the devolved nations to be held in due course.
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 were turned away from training posts in 2025. This year, more than 30,000 doctors were competing for only around 10,000 speciality training places in the first round.
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 NHS doctor strikes?
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 strikes were very widely supported by doctors, with a 77% turnout in the voting ballot from BMA (British Medical Association) members and 98% of voters supporting strike action. It remains to be seen what impact they will have, and whether or not there will be further strikes.
Doctors are seeking a 35% pay rise to restore pay to previous levels before the 26% cut. Note that to reverse a pay cut of 26%, the increase must be 35% - as it’s a percentage of a smaller starting amount. This means that doctors want to be paid the same as they were 15 years ago, in real terms, reversing over a decade of pay decreases.
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 strikes as "unreasonable and unnecessary," citing that resident doctors have already received a 28.9% pay increase over the past three years.
The Government has offered non-pay measures, including proposals to increase speciality training posts, but these have been rejected by the BMA as insufficient to address the scale of the jobs crisis.
What do the BMA junior doctor strikes mean for patient care?
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.
👉🏻 Read more: Common NHS Hot Topics
Key Ethical and Social Issues Related to the Junior Doctors’ Strikes in the UK
Is It Ethical for Doctors to Strike? (The Ethical 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:
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.
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:
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.
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
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 junior doctor strikes being reported in the press in the UK?
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:
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.
Be aware of the underlying economics of the strikes, and what the term ‘pay restoration’ really means.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Do you support the current resident doctor strikes?
What is full pay restoration in the context of the NHS?
How did the junior doctors' strikes arise?
Why do you think that so many junior doctors are leaving the profession?
Is it ethical for resident doctors to strike?
How is patient safety ensured when junior doctors go on strike?
What can you tell me about the controversy surrounding how the press has reported on the NHS junior doctors’ strikes?
What is the BMA?
How do the NHS strikes impact public perceptions of the NHS?
What is the current status of the junior doctors' strikes?
👉🏻 Read more: 280 Common Medicine Interview Questions
Conclusion
Overall, 2023 junior doctors’ strike questions can provide a valuable opportunity to reflect on the ethical challenges that can arise in medicine and to demonstrate your ability to think critically about these issues.
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