On a turnout of close to 60%, 92% of resident doctors voted to strike from 7am Tuesday 13th January to 7am Saturday 17th January 2026.
Strike action was avoided in the summer of 2023 when a new pay offer was agreed, which BMA Scotland said included a commitment to make “credible progress” toward restoring pay to 2008 levels over the next three financial years.
A proposed uplift of 4.25% for 2025/26 was rejected by the union, which said that would represent the lowest rise in the UK and was below the recommendation by the independent pay review body.
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Dr Chris Smith, chair of the BMA’s Scottish resident doctor committee, said: “The result of this ballot shows that resident doctors in Scotland are united in anger over the Scottish Government breaking the deal they agreed over pay just two years ago.
“This is not where we wanted to be. However, we have sent a message loud and clear – the Government cannot brazenly renege on its commitments without expecting to be held to account. Instead of negotiating with resident doctors to make credible progress towards pay restoration, as they agreed to do, they have imposed a pay uplift that is the lowest average award received by resident doctors anywhere in the UK.
“The deal that the Scottish Government agreed in 2023 was the only reason strike action which we have seen elsewhere in the UK has been avoided. It was working for doctors and the health service. By turning their backs on this deal, the Scottish Government is forcing a dispute and knowingly putting the NHS in Scotland at risk of disruptive strike action.
“By some measures this is a real-terms pay cut and even under optimistic forecasts, it will take decades to achieve pay restoration. That is completely unacceptable. We are simply asking for the Government to deliver on what they previously promised, an offer which will provide a meaningful, continued and crucially credible step on the path towards addressing the pay erosion which resident doctors have suffered from since 2008.
“If they had kept to their commitment, and the trajectory towards pay restoration, this dispute could have been averted. And there is still time to avoid strikes – BMA Scotland resident doctors remain committed to the deal when it is being upheld in its entirety.
“However we will not accept and we will not allow the deal we struck to be discarded so carelessly. If we don’t take a stand now when the Government have broken a commitment agreed to in good faith, they will take this as licence to do it again and again, including on issues such as contract negotiations and more training jobs for resident doctors as part of future medical workforce planning.
“This matters not just for doctors, but for patients and for the future of the entire NHS in Scotland, which relies on today’s resident doctors to stay here and become the GPs, specialist doctors and consultants of tomorrow.”
Health secretary Neil Gray said: “I am disappointed that BMA Resident Doctors have voted to take strike action and I have offered to meet the chair of the BMA Residents Committee on Monday 22 December.
“Resident Doctors in Scotland have received a 4.25% pay uplift this year – as part of a two-year deal – the same as accepted by Nurses and other NHS staff.
“This means by 2027, we will have delivered a cumulative pay rise of 35% in four years.
“Our top priority for our patients and the workforce is to improve waiting times, access to the NHS and positive outcomes. Industrial action will put all that progress at risk.”
