To think that not all doctors are badly paid - junior ones, yes, but not all?

Its always interesting to see what the psychological "6 figure" salary truly represents to people. Doctors earn 6 figures, they must be paid incredibly well...!

100k salary today is the same as a 65k salary was in 2010. Yet now when you earn 100k, you start paying over 60% tax on anything above that for quite some time.

I've got a group of friends who were all lucky enough to go to the same excellent grammar school. The lowest paid of them are now the two consultant doctors. They were the hardest working, most academically successful of the group at school. Its no longer an aspirational profession.

I did chuckle at the idea that a client might come to my Big4 team, and that we’d say we were at maximum case load and we couldn’t advise them…

But I still have a better deal at work then a doctor, I wouldn’t swap for what’s an equivalent salary (albeit much bigger pension…)

I get paid six figures. No one will ever die if I make a mistake at work. Yes they’re underpaid, even consultants.

The salary quoted above is for a full time job. If they are working elsewhere, eg teaching or private, they'll reduce their NHS funded hours.

Do you really think that? I think you need a chat with some associates at firms like Eversheds and Allen & Overy.

Whilst NHS Dr's can't close their caseloads, matters are dealt with by extending waiting lists: for knee replacements, cataracts, etc. I wouldn’t want to wait two years for surgery. People have to. Nobody waits for two years to see their solicitor or accountant.

The only difference is that the NHS is free at the point of delivery.

It takes about 10 years post degree to get to consultant. Anyone earning over £100k get hammered for tax so no I don't think consultant are well paid. Incredibly difficult to recruit in some specialities too.

I would respond to your reasoned argument but unfortunately, you’ve chosen to end your comment with “get over it”. Rudeness gets no acknowledgement from me so, enjoy your evening.

Your solicitor and your accountant will have a reasonable number of clients that they can accommodate within their set working hours. When your solicitors case load is full, they will not accept anymore. Do you honestly think it’s the same for doctors in a hospital setting? Medicine is incomparable career; so these comparisons are utterly pointless.

Whilst junior doctors have take the brunt of this, have teachers salaries kept up with inflation since 2008? No. Dropped by at least 10%. Do you know why that is? Because you work for the state and the state took a hammering in the financial crisis. If your employer is skint they can’t give you a pay rise. My employer was skint then too. I didn’t have a pay rise for at least 5 years. Absolutely nothing. Zero. Nada. But guess what, with people being made redundant all around me I was grateful to have a job. As were teachers in Ireland who voluntarily took a 20% pay cut at the time as they recognised their employer (the state) was skint and they couldn’t afford a pay rise.

I find the endless bleating about 2008 tiresome. Get over it.

THIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS!!!! ♥️

We’re not called Junior Doctors anymore, we’re called Resident Doctors. This change was brought about to better represent the expertise and responsibilities of fully qualified doctors as “junior doctor” was technically applicable up until consultant level. I’m not even getting into it on this thread as I’m beyond over arguing with the British public about my career and the pitfalls that come with it - but if you’re going to comment on our career and pay, can you at least address us correctly? Thank youuuuuu!

Doctors now earn about 25% less in real terms than they did in 2008, because of years of subinflation or zero pay rises

They are not asking for a pay increase, they are asking for their pay to be restored to previous levels

They are only looking at strike action because the government promised to make serious efforts to restore pay over the next 10 years. They have reneged on this at the first opportunity

Hardly surprising they're pissed off really, who would quietly accept a 25% pay cut and ignore broken promises of restoration??!

On top of this they have lost their final salary pension scheme, face yearly tax bills on the pension they have left, have around £100k of student debt on qualifying, and face increasingly shitty working conditions.

I'm amazed anyone wants to be a doctor nowadays. The pay situation is just the most visible point of dissatisfaction

The reality is they seem generally happier with a much better standard of living & far better quality of life, despite the accuracy of what you state above.

They also have HUGE student debt. 4 years undergrad then 4 years med school.

many jobs are more highly paid in the us. My own field is. Mainly because if you need a post grad qualification you need to compensate for the student debt. We don’t have it to that extent here, and you don’t pay it back until you are earning more. US loans you pay back whatever your salary is.

They earn FAR more in the USA.

Hospitals at night have skeleton staff covering emergencies for the whole hospital e.g. for medicine there will be 1 very junior doctor and 1 x registrar for the whole hospital including seeing medical patients in the emergency department and sometimes even on ITU (similar for surgeons/gynae/orthopaedics).

How lovely it would be to cover a single ward at night! Med reg is the most horrific job in the entire hospital. They deserve every penny.

Yes, I imagine that dr had enough money to buy some milk.

Are people on this thread aware of the GP unemployment that is happening at the moment?
in addition to the PP who asked about part time GPs. There are various reasons - for some it may be a choice but for others, working any more will lead to the risk of burnout due to the nature of the job. A lot of GPs have portfolio careers - whilst they may work part time at your surgery, they may have other roles within or outside the NHS.

They’ve not been called junior doctors for almost a year. The term now is resident doctors.

The money! We normally get our milk delivered and the hospital pays for it but we had run out. So yeah it’s annoying but the price of a pint of milk isn’t going to kill her.

(we take it in turns if it runs out and quite often the nursing staff will being in biscuits/extra tea bags etc. Funnily the doctors never do)

I am definitely on the same page as you when it comes to politeness. I can’t stand it when NHS staff do not introduce themselves, do not ask what name patients want to be called, do not explain things properly and do not check that the patient feels that they have been heard. In my view, no consultation is complete unless you asked the patient what they hoped for from the appointment.

I don’t tend to complain about my job although the increasing cuts in the staff numbers is making it impossible to deliver the same service that we did 20 years ago. We definitely deliver worse care than we did decades ago because we don’t have enough nurses and support workers to do the job any more. It’s sad.

My main stress is really being responsible for people’s lives. Trying not to worry that your actions may lead to harm or death.The few occasions I have had to go to Coroner’s Court have been the worst experiences of my life. But this is not directly to do with pay or funding, it is just the nature of the job. I’m not sure if more money could compensate me for that stress really.

I work with some amazing resident doctors. They have to jump through so many hoops these days. And I’m really not sure that all these hoops are necessary to be a good doctor. I don’t like the way it is going and feel that with the different working hours, all the leadership, academic and management objectives, these may actually be getting in the way of our residents having the intense clinical experience I did. I do think we can learn the most from patients, but that has got lost in the NHS to some degree. Or maybe I am just a bit too old to understand it all!

I don't think consultants are terribly underpaid, but their pay is less than it should be and does encourage many to do more lucrative private work to supplement it. Juniors are underpaid, especially given how long someone can be at that status in the UK, and given that their wages have gone down in real terms since 2010.

While GPs are not directly employed by the NHS, the GP contract effectively sets their compensation. I don't think GPs are paid enough given what they are expected to do, but I also suspect that a lot of GPs would prefer a workload reduction (ie same money but for less work) to just getting higher pay. It's why there's so many "part time" GPs who actually work 40 hours a week.

At no point did I want to encourage my kids to follow me into medicine. Thankfully they are at university doing entirely different subjects.

Excellent. We are on the same page then 😀

They also strike on their base salary rates. Junior doctors need to work at least 60 hours a week to reach a certain level of expertise. And overtime rates pay very very well.