Consultant doctors in England call off planned 48-hour strike
Consultant doctors in England have called off a 48-hour strike that had been planned for 25 and 26 November, after Health Secretary Yvette Cooper agreed to hold negotiations with them. The Guardian reported the decision on 11 November 2026.
Consultants are senior hospital doctors. The strike was announced by the British Medical Association (BMA), the doctors' organisation that has led the dispute. Consultants voted in July to take industrial action, which means strikes or other coordinated action by workers over pay and working conditions. The planned walkout would have limited consultants to providing emergency care only.
The consultants have set out two main grievances. They cited a 25% fall in the real-terms value of their salaries since 2009-10, meaning the drop after inflation is taken into account. They also requested a 10% cut in working hours.
Consultants received a 3.5% pay increase for 2026/27. The Department for Health and Social Care said negotiations will not give consultants more than that rise. The BMA, in its own account of the dispute, described the consultants' decision to take industrial action as following the government's pay offer, which it called sub-inflationary, meaning below the rate of inflation.
Talks were held between Yvette Cooper and the BMA consultants committee, which is led by co-chairs Dr Helen Neary and Dr Shanu Dattu. According to the BMA, consultant leaders agreed to pause industrial action as part of formal negotiations with the government. Those formal negotiations were due to start in the week after 11 November 2026.
