RESIDENT doctors began voting today on a new government pay and jobs offer, after the British Medical Association (BMA) called off a strike at the last minute to put the proposal to members.

The offer includes the standard terms seen in the 2016 resident doctors’ contract for all locally employed medics and an average 6.6 per cent pay rise by April 2027.

It also promised 4,500 extra speciality training places over the next three years.

Thousands of resident doctors in England were set to stage a four-day walkout from 7am on Monday, which would have been the 16th round of strike action since 2023.

However, it was called off on Saturday evening after the offer was made.

Online voting opened today at 3pm and will close at 12pm on June 26, the BMA said.

The union added that the current strike action, which is set to go until August, would end if the government’s proposals are accepted.

But if it is not, the BMA warned strikes “will have to escalate in intensity.”

BMA chairman Dr Jack Fletcher said the government offer was “worth consideration by our members.

“Tens of thousands of hard-working frontline doctors will be looking at this offer in detail and making their choice.

“If they decide that this is another real step on the road to pay restoration, and a jobs package that gives more certainty to their careers, then the strikes will end.

“If they do not, then strikes will continue, and they will have to escalate in intensity with another reballot.”

The government has called the deal “transformative,” claiming it improves “the pay, working conditions and job prospects of hardworking resident doctors.”

Health Secretary James Murray added that their offer would “not get any better.”