Junior Doctors

Who are junior doctors (now known as Resident Doctors) and what do they do? Explore fact checks on NHS junior doctors in England and the UK — pay, strikes, training, and more.

16 June 2025

Resident doctors’ pay: how much do they earn, and what does the BMA want?

Resident (formerly “junior”) doctors’ pay is in the news again, with a strike ballot underway. We explain how much different types of resident doctor get paid, and what their union has called for.

A demonstrator holds a placard during a protest calling for better pay for Junior Doctors in Whitehall, outside the gates of Downing Street in central London on August 11, 2023

4 June 2025

Telegraph overstates resident doctors’ pay demands

The union representing resident doctors is not asking for an extra 29% on top of this year’s 5.4% pay rise, as the paper reported. The demand is for a 29% rise on last year’s pay.

An organiser arranges BMA-branded placards calling for better pay outside a hospital in central London in 2023.

7 October 2024

£1.7 billion isn’t really the right figure for the total cost of NHS strikes

It doesn’t include the junior doctors’ strikes in the summer of 2024, and the overall cost would include a range of other factors.

22 March 2024

Most junior doctors have not had a 10% pay rise

Although the basic pay of first-year doctors in England did rise by that much last year, most junior doctors had a pay uplift of less than 10%.

29 February 2024

Junior doctors do not earn £140 in ten hours

This was about the hourly rate of basic pay only, for first-year doctors only, last year.

11 January 2024

Viral graphic gets details of ‘becoming a doctor’ wrong

People become doctors when they complete their medical degrees, at which point they start work on a basic salary of just over £32,000.

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9 January 2024

Sunak wrong to claim October’s waiting list improvement followed a pause in strikes

There was a fall in the NHS England waiting list in October—but it followed three days of strikes by junior doctors, consultants and specialty doctors earlier in the month.

5 January 2024

How much do junior doctors earn?

First-year junior doctors earn about £15.53 an hour in basic pay only—but the average junior doctor earned at least about £44,500 in the year to September 2023.