Junior doctors have voted to extend their strikes – by a whisker. Turnout for yesterday’s vote collapsed to less than 53 per cent – a whisker above the threshold needed to make it legal. Framed as a pay dispute, the strikes are the result of a needlessly ruined career structure, and a government perversely willing to leave British doctors unemployed.

The strikes started after an early February 2023 ballot in which turnout was more than three quarters and 98 per cent were in favour. In the following strikes, support remained at or above 90 per cent, but turnout kept dropping. In March 2024 it was 62 per cent, last July it was 55 per cent.

Some readers will feel juniors merit more pay; I suspect there are few who think the injustice is such that they are right to strike. But then I haven’t met a single junior doctor who feels that way, and as a hospital consultant I meet a large number in teaching hospitals and district generals alike. They’re not shy of telling me their feelings and I’m not shy of asking. They feel underpaid – people generally do – but none support the strikes for that reason. 

Being a junior doctor is, in many ways, a miserable job

What upsets them is the mess that’s been made of workforce planning. Their........

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