My payslip as a doctor in Feb 2021 during COVID

[Juniordoc]

See attached image. Yes this is for full-time work with weekends and nights in the currently stretched working conditions that the NHS provides.

This does not include the expenses and sacrifices of a six year medical degree. On top of that, we have to pay out of pocket for our own GMC membership, medical defence union, postgrad exams and revision courses, conferences and courses.

Please get behind us and support the strikes. We are burnout, exhausted and struggling to live

The money has to come from somewhere.

My God. This is totally appalling. I am disgusted and totally support you in the strike. You are the people who save lives. Put this on the front page of every newspaper in the country. This filthy TORY GOVERNMEMNT ARE EVIL BASTARDS.

Appalling treatment and pay. Totally support you. Thank you for all you do. We need you and you should be paid accordingly.
Hopefully things will change once the conservatives are wiped off the political map. (And I used to vote conservative but no more).

The OP doesn't have to confirm anything to you. Stop making it personal. I don't think you understand unless you have been in their shoes doing the jobs they do daily in unsafe conditions. As for the barristers you speak of that were striking, they deal with crime and that again is an area that is poorly paid within the legal profession.

I've always thought junior doctors are underpaid especially considering they often seem to work the graveyard shifts making huge clinical decisions. Meanwhile some of the pen pushers I work for in a non clinical department are on 90k - makes no sense.

Support you & your colleagues 100%
Thank you ❤️

Annietheacrobat · Today 15:43
Juniordoc found my payslips. 2001. PRHO year. Same take home pay as you 19 years later. This is so wrong and the consultant body is with you all the way.

I put your 2001 pay into a historic money calculator

Totally behind you. Thank you so much for all you do. When I was a teacher the difference in provision between Tory and labour was staggering, finding a pencil for the kids was a challenge at one point so I can only imagine how bad it is in a hospital with no staff and no resources. Thank you for sticking it out and trying to make things better. I am only sorry that it is so bad must be a living hell trying to battle on everyday when your aim is to help people and make a difference. Let’s hope that something shifts for all our sales.

Wow, just wow! People in the U.S. complain about the cost of healthcare but one of the reasons is because our doctors are paid SO much more. Hard to believe anyone would even want to be a doctor for that pay along with everything it entails to be a doctor. Very sad!

Exactly!! It’s disgusting.

"Our" NHS is not amazing, any more than "our" education system is amazing (why don't we personalise the education system in this way? Why is it only the NHS that brings out the mawkishness in so many people?).

The NHS is absolutely brilliant in parts (most notably emergencies, and there are some spectacular individuals who work within the NHS) and completely incompetent, uncaring and wasteful in others.

I don't believe the striking doctors are defending it. I believe they are hastening its final death. Which I also believe is something that actually needs to happen, though it would be better if it were to happen in a more thoughtful and orderly manner, with a real, coherent, workable, long-term plan for its replacement.

Doctors have a choice

To move to the other side of the world? Are you for real? And if everyone does as you say what do we do when there are no doctors left in the UK?

Fully support you, band 5 nurse here ❤️

To move to the other side of the world? Are you for real? And if everyone does as you say what do we do when there are no doctors left in the UK?

In any workplace, no one is irreplaceable

I get it i really do.

This is a genuine question but what does paying more achieve? How will this improve the NHS and descrease waiting lists?

I've just paid for an urgent op privately due to the list being over three years on the NHS. Why do i pay taxes if i can't get what i pay for?

Much more needs to be done all around the NHS.

Also this pay slip is two years old and why is covid relevant? Many people in all professions worked all through covid in high risk situations.

Not trying to argue. Just want to know .

Atrocious. Fully support you. With the years of study you do and the fact that peoples lives are in your hands you all deserve more. The key services - doctors, nurses, police and teachers - deserve to be paid properly for the invaluable service they provide.

Not OP but qualified to answer. Yes a FY1 doctor has completed at least 5-6 years of undergraduate medical training. An FY1 doctor is a doctor. FY1s prescribe independently - no counter signature needed. There is usually only 1 F1 covering all of the medical wards overnight. This f1 doctor is called by all the medical nurses. They assess patients independently and initiate management including prescribing medications, alone.

Not sure why you're comparing an f1 to a teacher? Like comparing apples to oranges. You dont automatically progress to a £100k salary either.

Are we forgetting these are all people who got straight A*s etc? Do you not want the brightest looking after you?

To those that said medical school is overprescribed- that's partly because of the prestige associated with it, particularly abroad where doctors are respected. Young people today (particularly those that have had work experience/know doctors whether in the family or otherwise) are not choosing this career. It isnt attractive.

To all those directing their anger at the doctors, why not channel your energy into demanding that public services and public sector pay are funded properly. Demand taxation of the excessive profits of large corporations or a wealth tax. Alternative taxation

GP here. I worked as PRHO (FY1 equivalent) in 2003 and as others have said my take home pay then was more than yours, plus I had free on-site accommodation at my London hospital, which probably saved around £7-8k a year. I think I left with around £12k of student debt after 6 years at med school (some resits were involved!) but I comfortably paid this off within 4-5 years.

20 years later, in my mid-40s, I work at a minimum 60-70 hours a week as a GP partner, and whilst my pay is substantially more than my junior dr years, the stress and workload caused by the lack of resource and workforce in the NHS continues unabated. I am currently off work with aggressive breast cancer and there is a strong possibility that I won't live long to claim my pension; if I do get through treatment and it doesn't reoccur I am already thinking very carefully about whether I want to return to such a punishing job, because being faced with such an unpleasant diagnosis makes me realise I really don't want to be getting home at 9pm each night.

The strikes have affected my chemotherapy schedule but I support them 100%. I was admitted recently with a neutropenic sepsis due to chemo, which could easily have finished me off, but due to excellent care received in the hospital I worked in all those years ago as a junior doctor, I survived to tell the tale. I did spend 15 hours isolated in a side room in A&E though, and can tell you it was an absolute war zone: we faced abuse as medical personnel back in the day, but my experience is sadly that the verbal and physical abuse in the ED today from the general public is constant and soul-destroying. Would I suffer that now for £14 knowing what I know now? I'm not sure. Working as a doctor has been a privilege and a joy in so many ways, but ultimately if the salary means you can't pay your debts, you cannot even begin to meet patient expectations of care based on demand and not need due to lack of resource, and you can't keep your health, it's really not a surprise when we lose so many young medics to other countries or other professions.

You seem to have a real chip on your shoulder.

I don't think a comparison between a teacher and a doctor is helpful. The service you both provide is invaluable, but you do not have to deal with life and death situations on a daily basis, work night shifts, spend an equal amount of time training, need the same level of education etc. You also get extremely generous holidays to recover from the stress of your job, which imo is not comparable to the stress of working as a doctor in a hospital.

How about the working conditions/hours etc change not the pay (by 35% anyway)?