Resident doctors in England vote to go into dispute over lack of progress on reforms to overtime and safe-working systems

The BMA resident doctors committee has voted to go into dispute over a lack of progress to non-payment elements of the 2024 pay deal.

Although the industrial dispute came to an end when the pay offer was accepted, several smaller issues remained unresolved which the committee believed would be ironed out by December.

The committee agreed to work with ministers to find resolutions on several of these outstanding issues and have been doing so for several months.   

A key element of the deal that resident doctors in England voted to accept in September 2024 was an agreement with Government to negotiate improvements to the way in which doctors report, and get paid for, the hours they work over and above their shift time – so called ‘exception reporting.’

This process is there to accurately record residents’ working hours, identify unsafe staffing levels, and protect patients from avoidable harm.

The committee believe these reforms are fundamental to improving the working lives of doctors and making the NHS safer, more productive, and efficient – something the Government agrees with.

The BMA has engaged in good faith in negotiations, but despite best efforts and an intervention by the Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, they have yet to reach an agreement.

Last minute changes to the agreement have added to delays and the resident doctors committee has voted to go into dispute to send a message to Government that a final agreement of these reforms is required as a matter of urgency.

Dr Melissa Ryan and Dr Ross Nieuwoudt, the co-chairs of the resident doctors committee, said: “We have had some very helpful and encouraging meetings with the Health Secretary, who wants to see this resolved as much as we do, but an agreement should already have been reached in order to secure important changes to improve working lives of resident doctors.

“We are clear that this failure to find agreement is an unnecessary delay and so we have voted overwhelmingly in favour of entering dispute.

“If there is not progress, we have been mandated to reinstate the resident doctors rate card, which means resident doctors should be paid the agreed BMA hourly rate for any extra shifts they do.

“However, it is within the Government’s gift to avoid this, and we hope to find agreement before that happens.”

The committee has laid out its concerns in a letter to Wes Streeting and has reiterated its commitment to keep working with him in the coming days and weeks.