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Original poster

Resident doctors synicsl strike again

739 replies

uneffingbelievable · 25/03/2026 20:22

The resident doctors have once again announced a 6 day strike to co incide with a bank holiday weekend.

Whilst I support fair pay and working conditions I have lost all sympathy with them. This is not poverty when you are being paid as a whole package 40-95000 gross on a 44 hr week depending on your seniority.

The arguments about lack of jobs did not stack up with more jobs going to home graduates than IMGS despite the hysteria and a huge number of home graduates not even bothering to apply.

They are coming across as tone deaf and entitled or am I missing something.

OP posts:
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ElizabethFryIsSpinning · 25/03/2026 21:22

That's after five years training at med school. And straight in looking after patients.

NoSoupForU · 25/03/2026 21:22

Bearnese · 25/03/2026 21:15

Outrageously high or outrageously low? It’s not as though they’ve got on the job experience. What do you expect an engineer to earn for instance? An accountant?

Show quote history

I'm an engineer and earn significantly more than that salary range. The starting salary is broadly similar to my starting salary 20 or so years ago.

Resident doctors do have experience. They don't enter their residency until they've qualified and they can't qualify without hands on experience. They then also have at least a couple years foundation experience.

cotswoldsgal1234 · 25/03/2026 21:21

NoSoupForU · 25/03/2026 21:07

Pay starts at about £38k and increases to about £78k with progression through the scales.

£38k for a resident doctor is outrageous.

I support anyone's right to strike. I recognise that I benefit from decent working conditions precisely because people have fought for them, including taking strike action.

So that’s 38k for a 23 year old.
Plus shift / on call allowances etc, which takes the average to the mid 40s
Not bad considering they are brand new, and at the very start of their career.
if we were flush with money then people would be more sympathetic, but we are in a crisis. And these people know that. The BMA is not fit for purpose.

Toetouchingtitties · 25/03/2026 21:19

ElizabethFryIsSpinning · 25/03/2026 20:34

I've also had to cash in my pension so he can put down a deposit on a flat in an area of high cost housing and low recruitment

You didn't have to. You chose to. What was stopping him from renting until he built up his own deposit, like many people on average wages do?

Bearnese · 25/03/2026 21:15

NoSoupForU · 25/03/2026 21:07

Pay starts at about £38k and increases to about £78k with progression through the scales.

£38k for a resident doctor is outrageous.

I support anyone's right to strike. I recognise that I benefit from decent working conditions precisely because people have fought for them, including taking strike action.

Outrageously high or outrageously low? It’s not as though they’ve got on the job experience. What do you expect an engineer to earn for instance? An accountant?

Wishiwasatailor · 25/03/2026 21:14

@OhDear111 please don't called paramedics "ambulance drivers" it's reductive of their qualifications and training.

NoSoupForU · 25/03/2026 21:07

Pay starts at about £38k and increases to about £78k with progression through the scales.

£38k for a resident doctor is outrageous.

I support anyone's right to strike. I recognise that I benefit from decent working conditions precisely because people have fought for them, including taking strike action.

JehovasFitness · 25/03/2026 20:57

I am somewhat less sympathetic than I was a few years ago but the fact is the austerity choices ate away at their pay growth and were nowhere near restoring it. They’re clearly very important and when things are high value you have to pay for them.

OhDear111 · 25/03/2026 20:56

@ElizabethFryIsSpinning Some people are square pegs in a round hole. Of course there can be traumatic situations but the ambulance drivers earn a lot less! If he cannot stand the heat etc…. It’s only for a short while and there’s so many other options. My DDs friend adores being a doctor and who else has already had whopping pay rises and has the tax payer stumping up 28% towards their incredibly generous pension. I’m with the government. It’s unrealistic and greedy.

Bearnese · 25/03/2026 20:54

They’re such tiresome little whiners. If they fought on jobs only I’d give them the time of day. Any complaining about pay when the career average of a doctor must be the highest public sector salary going is entitled in the extreme.

Locutus2000 · 25/03/2026 20:52

ElizabethFryIsSpinning · 25/03/2026 20:32

Depends if you want a functioning A and E etc. last week my DS started his shift with several life or death situations. He works part time as the 12 hour night shifts are wrecking his health . He could earn more working for big pharma and we are begging him to either change jobs or leave.

Blackmail again is it?

You realise junior doctors don't run a hospital on their own?

Original poster
uneffingbelievable · 25/03/2026 20:37

sorry cynical phone typing always bad

OP posts:
ElizabethFryIsSpinning · 25/03/2026 20:34

I've also had to cash in my pension so he can put down a deposit on a flat in an area of high cost housing and low recruitment

ElizabethFryIsSpinning · 25/03/2026 20:32

Depends if you want a functioning A and E etc. last week my DS started his shift with several life or death situations. He works part time as the 12 hour night shifts are wrecking his health . He could earn more working for big pharma and we are begging him to either change jobs or leave.