More NHS doctors threaten to walkout with health service facing six months of disruption
Resident doctors voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action to ramp up pressure on ministers
First-year resident doctors have voted overwhelmingly to strike - leaving the NHS potentially facing six more months of disruption.
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The British Medical Association (BMA) officials announced that 97 per cent of the resident doctors, who were previously known as junior doctors, balloted said they were in favour of industrial action
The move will ramp up pressure on Wes Streeting's Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) amid a row over jobs.
The BMA survey also said that more than a third of the first-year medics had no substantive employment or regular work from August 2025.
This figure rises to a whopping 52 per cent among second-years.
It comes after resident doctors walked out of English hospitals for five days in July and the dispute over pay has not been resolved.
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No strikes have been planned - but the survey is likely to raise the stakes upon the Government to find a resolution in the dispute.
In a statement, the union said it wants Labour to invest more in training doctors, as well as helping restoring pay after what they say is 21 per cent real terms cut since 2008.
Dr Jack Fletcher, chair of the BMA's resident doctors committee, said: "Doctors have spoken clearly: they won't accept that they face a career of insecurity at a time when the demand for doctors is huge.
"Yet successive governments have been unable to embrace the changes both doctors and patients are crying out for.
"It makes no sense that despite the need to bring down waiting lists and increase capacity for patients to be seen, thousands of willing and skilled doctors are unable to find the work to begin treating them.
"The NHS 10 Year Plan currently offers a paltry 1,000 training extra places when there are already 20,000 more applicants than places.
"The result of today's ballot makes it clear that the Government will now need to step up to the plate.
"By putting these two disputes — pay and jobs — together, we are now giving Government a chance to create a plan that supports and develops the workforce of the next generation.
"Patients need doctors to have jobs. Doctors need to know they will have jobs. And they need to know they will be paid what they're worth.
"We do not want to have to strike, but we will if we are left with no choice.
"The Government has the power to end both of these disputes now: it must use this opportunity to make the changes that are desperately needed."