Resident doctors’ strike begins with disruption expected

NHS England has warned of disruption to its services as resident doctors begin six days of strike action on 7 April.

The government had previously threatened to withdraw an offer of thousands of new training posts for resident doctors, unless the British Medical Association (BMA) called off its strike within 48 hours.

On 2 April, after the deadline passed without any movement from the BMA or resident doctors, the government cancelled the training positions. The strike is now going ahead as planned.

NHS bosses ‘disappointed’

On 6 April, the night before the strike began, NHS England released a statement warning of disruption, which also criticised the BMA:

Disappointingly, the BMA resident doctors committee (RDC) has announced industrial action from 7am on Tuesday 7 April to 6.59am on Monday 13 April 2026.

The announcement of industrial action follows months of intensive talks between the BMA and Government. This culminated with the BMA’s RDC both rejecting the deal their leadership had worked on with us and refusing to put the deal to their membership.

The statement follows on from NHS England’s previous disregard for striking workers. Last year, the Canary reported that NHS boss James Mackey “is known for having a track record for telling hospitals to disregard union-recommended staff safety levels.”

In light of this most recent industrial action, the advice from NHS England remains the same:

Resident doctors can be redeployed during industrial action if this is necessary to ensure patient safety and no other staff are available to cover.

Wes Streeting criticises strike

Secretary of state for health and social care, Wes Streeting, also remains “eager to paint the resident doctors as the villains in the story and turn the public against them.”

Speaking to the Guardian about the cancelled training posts on the first day of the strike, he said:

We rushed through emergency legislation to prioritise UK graduates for training places, reducing competition from four to one to less than two to one. This deal would have gone further by introducing up to 4,500 additional specialty training posts over three years, including 1,000 this April, alongside support such as reimbursing mandatory exam fees that can cost thousands.

Instead of accepting this offer, the BMA rejected it outright and announced immediate strike action. Not only does this torpedo the pay rises and training posts available to resident doctors, but it also puts at risk the recovery of the NHS.

As ever, Streeting places all the blame on doctors themselves, ignoring his own responsibility for worsening working conditions. As the Canary‘s Skwarkbox argued last year:

Streeting and his boss Keir Starmer are not just scaremongering – like any Tories, they are actively and intentionally pushing the NHS further into collapse.

The latest round of strike action will continue for one week, ending on 13 April.