Resident Doctors End Three-Year Strike Dispute with Pay Vote

Resident doctors in England have voted to accept a government pay offer, ending three years of industrial action that cost the NHS more than £1 billion and disrupted the care of hundreds of thousands of patients. The British Medical Association announced on 29 June 2026 that 53% of members voted in favour on a 57% turnout, accepting an average 6.6% pay uplift to be fully delivered by April 2027. Resident doctors walked out 15 times since March 2023 in a dispute centred on what the BMA described as a 35% real-terms fall in pay since 2008. The resolution comes as NHS England reports the waiting list now stands 403,000 lower than in June 2024 and 171,000 lower than a year ago, with elective recovery cited as a key driver of the improvement.

What Three Years of Strikes Cost the NHS

The 15 rounds of resident doctor strikes since March 2023 cost the NHS more than £1 billion, according to reporting by The Guardian. Each round resulted in cancellations of operations, outpatient appointments, and diagnostic tests. NHS England's target during each strike period was to maintain 95% of normal elective activity, meaning thousands of appointments were still deferred per week of action. The cumulative effect added further pressure to a waiting list that peaked at 7.77 million in September 2023. NHS England data shows the list has since fallen to around 7.1 million, a recovery that was complicated but not reversed by repeated strike action.

What This Means for Patients

With resident doctors returning fully to work, NHS trusts can focus entirely on elective recovery without further disruption from this dispute. Patients who had appointments postponed during previous strike periods should expect trusts to begin rescheduling. However, you do not have to wait to be contacted - under the NHS Right to Choose, you can request your GP to re-refer you to any NHS trust or NHS-commissioned provider in England with a shorter waiting list. Patients who switch trusts often reduce their wait by several months.

How to Find a Shorter Wait

You can search NHS hospitals by specialty and postcode to compare waiting times at trusts near you and find where you can be seen soonest, now that all resident doctors are back at work.