Hospital chiefs dust off strike plans after resident doctors’ vote
Chiefs at Shropshire’s major hospitals are preparing contingency plans in case a national industrial dispute involving resident doctors is not settled.
Resident doctors who are members of the BMA union have voted for a ‘full walk-out’ strike action from 7am on Friday, July 25 to 7am on Wednesday, July 30.
Andrew Morgan, who chairs the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals NHS Trust, told a meeting today (Thursday, July 10) that the NHS already has a contingency plan to minimise the impact on services if the doctors do walk out following strikes last year.
Mr Morgan told the board meeting that it is a “national issue that we can’t resolve”.
“But we just deal with the consequences of it, if it happens.”
Resident doctors – formerly known as junior doctors – took strike action in 2023-24 in support of their campaign of ‘pay restoration’.
During those strikes residents were asked to only visit emergency departments (A&E) or call 999 for genuine, life-threatening emergencies, and seek help for other minor illnesses and injuries from other services such as NHS 111, community pharmacies and Minor Injury Units (MIUs).
Patients with scheduled hospital appointments were told that they would be notified as soon as possible if appointments needed to be rescheduled.
The BMA said that between 2023 and 2024 resident doctors in England participated in an 11 rounds of strike action, after negotiations with the previous Conservative Government over restoring pay ‘repeatedly stalled’.
Following last year’s general election, they reached an agreement on pay with the newly elected Labour government, with resident doctors later voting to endorse this deal in September 2024.
A BMA spokesperson said: “While this agreement marked the end of formal dispute process, resident doctors leaders were clear that it was merely a step forward rather than the end of the journey to full pay restoration.”
The union added that the result means resident doctors have a fresh mandate for industrial action from now until January 2026.
