Resident doctor strikes have cost NHS £1 billion since 2024

Strikes by resident doctors have cost the NHS an estimated £1 billion since July 2024, the government has confirmed.

Health Minister Karin Smyth disclosed the figure in a written answer to Conservative MP Wendy Morton, published on Wednesday (20 May).

There have been four rounds of strikes since the pay agreement that settled the previous dispute in July 2024. Resident doctors walked out for five days each in July, November and December 2025, and for six days in April 2026, totalling 21 days of industrial action.

Each strike day cost an estimated £50 million in direct and indirect costs.

Smyth said no other national strikes by healthcare worker groups occurred in the same period. The figure covers only the four rounds since the July 2024 deal and excludes earlier walkouts that began in 2023.

The April 2026 strike was the 15th round across the wider three-year dispute, on which the previous Conservative government spent an estimated £1.7 billion before losing power.

The British Medical Association holds a mandate for further action until August 2026 and is pursuing pay restoration to 2008 real-terms levels, which the union estimates would cost £1.7 billion.

Former Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who resigned earlier this month, had previously said meeting the BMA’s demands in full would cost £3 billion per year.

NHS England publishes data on postponed appointments during periods of industrial action and workforce and activity analysis for individual strike rounds. During previous walkouts, hospitals have maintained around 95% of planned routine care while concentrating remaining staff on emergency and life-saving services.

The government also ruled out reintroducing minimum service levels, the regime introduced under the Conservatives’ Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023.

Smyth said the government is committed to resolving disputes through negotiations between employers, unions and ministers, rather than statutory restrictions on strike action.

Striking workers remain subject to section 240 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, which allows criminal prosecution of anyone who intentionally and maliciously endangers life or causes serious injury by going on strike.

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