(Bloomberg) -- Junior doctors in England voted to accept a pay rise of 22.3% on average in a deal that Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government said would bring the strikes which have hampered the country’s National Health Service to an end.
Some 66% of junior doctors were in favor of agreeing to the offer made by the government during the summer, the British Medical Association said in an emailed statement, following an online ballot of nearly 46,000 doctors with a turnout of 69%.
The doctors had taken 44 days of strike action since October 2022, leaving patients facing canceled appointments and operations during former Premier Rishi Sunak’s administration, at a time of when waiting lists were at a record high.
Starmer will hope the resolution to the industrial action provides a boost to his government, which has faltered in opinion polls amid a gloomy political narrative about the UK’s economic outlook since the Labour Party’s July election win.
“We inherited a broken NHS, the most devastating dispute in the health service’s history, and negotiations hadn’t taken place with the previous ministers since March,” Health Secretary Wes Streeting said after the announcement of the pay deal.
“This agreement is excellent news for patients, doctors and the wider NHS,” the health service’s chief executive in England, Amanda Pritchard said.
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.
