Doctors announce six-day strike in England as talks break down
Health / Thu 26th Mar 2026 at 09:07am
RESIDENT doctors are to stage a six-day strike in England next month after talks broke down between the union, the British Medical Association (BMA), and government reports the BBC.
The BMA said it was taking action as the government had not done enough to address their pay claims and concerns about job shortages.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c62j7jx910go
Jane
2026-03-26 10:20:25
Unbelievable! I sat in A+E for 15 hours through the evening+night last week. My GP had sent me for urgent blood test+xray at lunchtime, it was the results that got me sent for urgent care. On arrival I had an ECG which meant at the beginning all my results were available. Instead I sat there beside a waiting room full of people needing urgent care. The board stated a 5 hour wait then nearly 8 then 10. At this point I had already been waiting 11 hours. Initially there were 2 doctors then only one. We waited over 3 hours with nobody being called. Then there was a shift change+patients started to be called. When my turn came I had a 10 minute conversation (if that) with a dr who gave me box of tablets+I was done. I can only describe my long wait as inhumane+extremely unnecessary. Sitting there for so long is torture+unfair. You go because you are unwell+the last thing you need is to sit on a hard chair feeling extremely uncomfortable. I went home in pain I didn't have before I went+very sleep deprived. It took 4 days to get over it. I don't care what your strike is about. Get of your backsides+do the job you chose to do+leave us patients out of your problems. There's a way to deal with everything in this life so stop punishing people who the misfortune of becoming ill or injured. You are suppose to care. You should be ashamed of yourselves, I certainly am.
Adam
2026-03-26 13:26:44
Ahh the NHS, has there ever been failure and entitlement at such levels. the NHS is a failure in part to the attitudes and working practices of the staff. want to fix the NHS start buy gripping the staff and making them actually deliver. As for the striking doctors, fire them and revoke their license to practice I am done being told they deserve more money while failing to deliver anything but a health service more likely to harm than help.
Seamus
2026-03-26 21:26:22
Is it that time of year already?
David Forman
2026-03-27 14:26:07
Actually, consultants can earn more in the private sector and are increasingly doing so as the Government hand over more NHS work to them. A report by Professor Allyson Pollock and others at Newcastle University on privatised hip, knee and cataract surgery stated: "Our research makes it clear - outsourcing is worsening outcomes, fuelling inequality, and hollowing out the NHS from within. This work demonstrates the damaging impact of private sector involvement in the NHS and confirms the creation of a two-tier system that benefits the wealthy while leaving poorer patients behind. It’s time to take action to reverse course.” They added: "Between 2003 and 2008 - when the proportion of NHS patients treated in the private sector was negligible - NHS surgical admissions rose and waiting times more than halved. But after 2008, as private provision expanded, NHS capacity fell sharply and waiting times increased across the board. See report at https://www.ncl.ac.uk/press/articles/latest/2025/04/privateprovisionlongerwaitfornhshipsknees/
David Forman
2026-03-27 14:30:51
For those who prefer to listen rather than read, please listen to retired consultant paediatrician Dr John Puntis of Keep Our NHS Public why outsourcing NHS surgery to the private sector is causing problems: https://x.com/keepnhspublic/status/1934171933739728924?s=20
David Vincent
2026-03-27 14:37:22
As the British Medical Association explain, it was the Government trying to pull a fast one: "The offer had included commitments to reforming the structure of pay scale nodal points and pay uplifts for doctors successful completing their ARCP (annual review of competence progression). However, Resident Doctors' Cimmittee negotiators said that, at the last moment, the Government had opted to reduce the value of the original investment on the pay element of the offer and stretch this over a period of three years." See BMA statement at https://www.bma.org.uk/news-and-opinion/new-resident-doctor-strike-dates-announced
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