Drs' payrise should be funded by cutting 23.7% govt pension contribution

I'm sure it depends on the job but I'd have to take an enormous pay cut to go to public sector.

My husband (civil servant) is underpaid compared to the private market by around £5k so yes it is true. The pension is part of the full benefits package in order to offset the difference. He’d rather have the £5k and is trying to leave, turnover on his sector is huge as tbh they aren’t that far above minimum wage.

My work give me private healthcare as part of my benefits package. Salary, bonus, pitiful pension, life insurance and healthcare. Every financial services / banking / professional services company I’ve heard of does this. You can ‘buy’ healthcare for your spouse and kids for about £50 extra a month. This is totally standard practice. The company may charge you more next year if the insurance company charges them more, but this amount will be set company wide, so use it or not, you’ll be charged exactly the same as any other colleague.

Prove it
I’ve had private health cover for 30 years
Podiatry dentistry mental health services anything else they can think of to get away with all extras
And the more you claim the more you pay

Not sorry but i think they deserve a better pay offer.

They got 5% this year, barely the inflation and next year its 2.5%, in real terms, over the last 20 or so years, they ve seen a pay cut.

They aren't asking for a massive pay rise this year but a road map to pay restoration, its very short sighted too, they will simply leave and the NHS will get even worse..... my nr neighbours DD, a resident doc, is now in NZ, the knock on is now her family, c/w a highly skilled maths teacher, have also emigrated.

A resident Doc gets 38k in their first year, increasing to 44k in the 2nd year, for the level of responsibility, thats shite.

As for "holding us to ransom" well, if they don't matter and are entitled fools, they wouldn't be able too.

The Govt are holding a gun over all of our heads, Starmer etc wont be going to an NHS if he became ill, so the ransom argument cuts both ways.

By what measure do you claim that people in the public sector are underpaid? If you compare to private wages in the private sector that just isn’t true.

Nonsense. My private healthcare is supplied by my employer and the amount their pay is per workforce so remains at a set amount whatever I claim. And yes it covers my child’s private mental healthcare.

I'm a paramedic. Not many graduates take on the level of responsibility, un social hours and risk to there physical and mental health that we do (likewise junior doctors).

Our pay on the surface isn't great, but with the pension contribution (compulsory saving) it's okay (depending where in the UK you are), but this doesn't mean we shouldn't have a fair pay rise every year, and that should have been happening for the last 20 years, and hasn't, which is why we are now in this mess.

Why can’t we have a healthcare system that works properly like in the rest of Europe? Why aren’t we uk citizens worth that? I have private medical cover, I’m alright. Everyone should have the right to timely medical care.

Can’t edit my post apologies.
Childs mental health services aren’t covered by most families private health insurance. It would be considered an extra that you would have to pay almost another 20% on top of your premium for.
And then the minute you make a claim that would Escalate to the point where you wouldn’t be able to get insurance for it any more, wouldn’t you made a couple of Claims
So you’ve been no better off you’d be better off going private now if your child is so ill

I completely agree with you OP and have thought that public sector pensions need reform for a long time

. Back in the day the very generous public sector pensions were viewed as some sort of compensation for lower wages compared to private sector. That hasn’t been the case for some years now, with private sector wages struggling to keep up.

This is the solution I think - fine, have your eye watering pay rises now but the money has to come from the ludicrous pension provision for public sector.

Not working for anyone?

Well that's just completely exaggerated and makes you look a bit silly

Child’s mental health wouldn’t be covered by most private insurance premiums by the way so you could be better off

With that attitude, it’s no wonder the waiting lists get longer, it’s the selfish staff.

They have Medicare in America I believe. But seriously, the NHS model is not working for anyone. It’s shite. The CAMHS waiting list is about 5 years here. That’s a disgraceful waste of to treat an ill child and will make their illness much worse. We need to stop thinking it can be fixed. It can’t. Bin the entire model and start again. Now, please. People are suffering.

Where did she say she felt sorry for them? It’s a five day strike at a point in the year where the service carries out very little elective work anyway. You apparently place very little value on their work anyway.

No, they wouldn’t. They would just pass the cost of everything onto you and create more companies potentially more jobs, but you wouldn’t be any better off
The US can be summed up nicely by busy doing nothing.
I speak to people on $250,000 a year that genuinely can’t afford very much in their lives. Certainly no travel. Or any kind of luxuries

What all of them? Exaggerating much?

Then private companies would leave the UK.

And when that happens the doctors will earn what they’re worth which is about triple what the UK doctors are paid and guess who’s gonna be covering that
You with your private medical care that may or may not be paid by your employer - Plenty of them currently go bust owing tax what happens if they go bust owing your insurance and you’re not covered?
but companies don’t just suddenly decide. Oh we’ll get that Insurance for you and we’ll pay out the extra couple of hundred pounds.
They deduct that off the Salary they’re offering.

If private sector workers are offered private medical care they have to pay for it out of their net salary. Also, private sector works have far less job security. It is almost impossible to be fired in the NHS, there are endless appeal options, not the case in private. They sick leave is incredibly generous in the NHS, very limited in private.

And those who can't work, or who don't get medical cover? Fuck em? Let them die?

We should all have private medical care as party of the terms of our employment. The NHS should be binned. It’s not working. And then perhaps doctors will earn what they think they’re worth.

Private sector employees often have other benefits that state employees don't, like private medical care which would be worth a huge amount.

Don’t be naive