Why are early career doctors angry?
The Briefing Room
BBC
4.8 • 731 Ratings
🗓️ 11 December 2025
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In a few days time resident doctors -who used to be known as junior doctors - will go on strike. Just before Christmas and with flu on the rise. This will be the 14th strike by the doctors’ union since March 2023. The ostensible reason is pay but coming up behind it as an issue for younger doctors is the question of their futures- they're very unhappy about their working conditions and their career paths. David Aaronovitch and guests discuss what's going on and ask what the problem is with the way we in Britain train our doctors?
Guests: Hugh Pym, BBC Health Editor Sir Andrew Goddard, Consultant Gastroenterologist Professor Martin McKee, Professor of European Public Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Mark Dayan, Policy Analyst, Nuffield Trust.
Presenter: David Aaronovitch Producers: Caroline Bayley, Kirsteen Knight, Cordelia Hemming Production Co-ordinator: Maria Ogundele Sound Engineers: Michael Regaard, Gareth Jones Editor: Richard Vadon
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:09.7 | In a few days' time, resident doctors, who used to be known as junior doctors, were meant to be going on strike. |
| 0:16.4 | The ostensible reason was pay, but now the dispute may be over without any more increases to salary levels. |
| 0:23.4 | The government has instead made an offer to do something about the other big issue for early career doctors, |
| 0:29.1 | working conditions and specialist training places. |
| 0:32.9 | This issue is critical not just for the doctors, but for the running of the NHS itself. |
| 0:38.7 | So what's going on and what's the problem with the way we in Britain have been training our doctors? |
| 0:43.8 | Step into the briefing room and together we'll find out. |
| 0:50.6 | First, I'm joined by the BBC's health editor Hugh Pim to give us some background on the doctor's dispute. |
| 0:56.6 | Hugh, we were expecting a doctor's strike in a few days' time. Tell us what's actually happened. |
| 1:01.5 | Well, a lot has happened very close to the strike actually taking place. On Wednesday evening, |
| 1:08.8 | Wes Streeting appeared in the Commons and announced a new offer, |
| 1:13.3 | which hadn't been expected. It appears that the back channels between the government and the |
| 1:17.2 | BMA had been working away, even though the rhetoric had been really quite fierce on both sides. |
| 1:23.4 | And there was a bit of an expectation that the five-day strike in England due to start on December the 17th would take place. So he's made a new offer to the British Medical Association. |
| 1:34.2 | And what's significant is they've said they will at least put it to members, which hadn't |
| 1:39.4 | happened before, going back to the strikes in July and November. The way they're going to put it is through an online survey, |
| 1:46.4 | and based on that survey, they'll decide whether or not the strike goes ahead. |
| 1:50.2 | Right, so they haven't got much time to do it. |
| 1:52.5 | Hugh, what I found interesting, particularly for the purposes of this program, |
| 1:56.4 | about this discussion between the BMA and West treating, |
| 2:00.1 | is that some of it was about pay, of course, |
... |
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