Getty ImagesScotland’s Health Secretary Neil Gray says he wants to avoid a resident doctors strike but believes he has offered the best pay deal possible.
On Friday medics voted in favour of a four-day strike to take place in January, in what could the first national walkout staged by NHS workers in Scotland.
Further negotiations between the Scottish government and the union BMA Scotland are expected to take place later.
Gray said he would look at options to avoid a walkout, but said “substantial” progress had been made on doctors’ pay since a deal was struck in 2023.
He told Radio Scotland Breakfast that he “fully respected” the rights of the BMA to ballot, but that industrial action was “in no-one’s interests”.
He added: “I don’t believe they’re in the interests of staff who are already under significant pressure at this time of year in terms of the pressure that’s brought by flu and other issues. They’re not in the interests of patients who will inevitably face a detrimented service.
“I would always rather we had avoided strike action, that has been my aim throughout discussions.”
Resident doctors – who used to be called junior doctors – make up almost half of the medical workforce in Scotland.
They range from newly qualified doctors to those with 10 years or more experience.
Scotland had been the only part of the UK to have avoided strike action by NHS workers.
A series of strikes by resident doctors in England has led to thousands of operations and procedures being cancelled.
A strike in Scotland in the summer of 2023 was called off at the last minute after a deal was agreed.
But now doctors have accused the Scottish government of reneging on a commitment to restore their pay to 2008 levels.
The latest strike ballot had a 58% turnout of the 5,185 doctors eligible to vote, with 92% (3,008) voting in favour.
Strike dates have been set for 07:00 on Tuesday 13 January to 07:00 on Saturday 17 January 2026.
PA MediaThe two-year offer from the Scottish government was for a 4.25% increase in 2025/26 and 3.75% in 26/27.
It is the same offer that nurses, paramedics and other NHS workers accepted earlier this year.
BMA Scotland said it would have been the lowest in the UK and was less than was recommended by the independent pay review body.
The current offer would see the basic pay for a newly qualified doctor rise from £34,500 to £37,345 for 2026/27 and for a doctor with 10 years experience rise from £71,549 to £77,387.
Medics will often be expected to work night shifts, weekend or longer hours for which they will receive extra payments.
Dr Lucas O’Donnell, deputy chairman of BMA Scotland’s resident doctors committee, said the Scottish government was “tearing up” the 2023 deal with its latest offer.
He said doctors’ pay increases had been below the rate of inflation for the last 15 years, and that currently, doctors start on a rate of £17.40 per hour – which the BMA wants to see increased to £20.90 per hour.
“For doctors who are looking after, at times, 150 patients, at a time when you are the first responder to heart attacks, strokes, cardiac arrests, I don’t think £20.90 is some kind of largess or luxury,” he told the programme.
“We want to keep doctors in Scotland and unfortunately I’ve lost count of the amount of colleagues I’ve lost to Australia, to Canada.
“We had a deal which prevented strikes, we just want to keep to what the Scottish government had already agreed.”
Neil Gray said he had not been presented with the hourly rate figures but would “of course” consider what is presented during negotiations.
However, he disagreed with BMA Scotland’s claims that the latest pay offer breaks the previous deal.
The minister said: “By any stretch of the imagination, by any measure, we have made progress to close that gap in resident doctor pay.”
Gray added that he had to be “cognisant of fairness and affordability” and wanted to prioritise progress on NHS waiting times, which he said a strike would put at risk.