'We're not doing this to be selfish'

Plea to readers from BMA ahead of 6-day strike

- BY MARTIN BAGOT Health Editor

DOCTORS on the eve of a six-day strike are trying to convince Mirror readers their action is not selfish.

Thousands of hospital appointments will be cancelled when resident doctors walk out at 7am tomorrow, the latest strike in their three-year pay dispute.

The government says its 4.9% pay offer is among the highest in the public sector. But doctors say it is not what it seems, as it amounts to a pay cut after inflation and their real-terms pay is already lower by 21% since 2008.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting and Dr Jack Fletcher, chair of the British Medical Association's Resident Doctors Committee, argue their cases in today’s paper. Dr Fletcher, an acute medicine doctor based in the North East, urges readers to recall their last experience in A&E or on a ward. He said of the action, the 15th in the dispute: "If you've already made up your mind I am being selfish, I'm asking you to hold that thought just for a moment."

Mr Streeting said the headline pay offer was 3.5% for 2026/27 but the overall package, including reimbursement for exam costs, meant doctors would get an average pay rise of 4.9%.