UK doctors’ union suspends planned strikes, set to vote on new offer

LONDON: Resident doctors in England have called off strikes due to start next week after the government made a “last-minute” offer that will be put to a vote of union members, the British Medical Association said on Saturday.

The union said its UK Resident Doctors Committee would hold a referendum on the offer and that strikes planned from June 15 would be suspended while the vote takes place.

The BMA said the new offer would deliver an average 6.6% pay raise by April 2027, in combination with this year’s pay review body recommendation, with a further increase to follow.

“We have always been clear that no strikes needed to go ahead if we received an offer appropriate to put to our members,” committee chair Jack Fletcher said, adding that the offer would be judged by members on whether it addressed doctor unemployment and pay erosion.

The now-suspended walkout by resident doctors had been scheduled to run from June 15 to June 19, after their union said health minister James Murray had not improved a pay offer doctors had already rejected.