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

Completely behind you. X

Hi, not OP. What it will attempt to achieve is staff retention. Currently, particularly out of hours - we bounce between the sickest patients for the entire 12 hours until the shift is over. The number of times you finally make it to the loo 7 hours in etc and your crash bleep goes off (i.e somebody's heart has likely stopped). You go to assess them. This involves examining, bloods including putting a venous cannula in as well as an arterial blood gas, reading their notes, chest compressions, making the decision to eventually stop or if we get a rhythm then making subsequent management plans. Documenting everything. Then going to your next most sick patient - perhaps a heart attack and/or a stroke, trying to decide which of the 759863 calls to get to first. Sometimes you prioritise wrongly. Mr X who's had his 6th fall in as many days who the nurses weren't particularly concerned about, you get there but actually he's pleasantly confused, you organise a CT head and see he's had a bleed on the brain. A nasty one but it was masked by his dementia. etc.

Many patients who you get called for just dont get seen to in the entire shift because you're fire-fighting, not quite close enough to dying to be seen. We need more of us. People have been leaving since I qualified and certainly more now than ever before. I too would consider leaving.

Re: why covid is relevant. We signed up to be doctors, but covid felt almost like being in the army. There was no protection for a long time. Many of us paid the ultimate price and died. It was terrifying going to work. Everyone else was terrified in the comforts of their home while being furloughed. We worked even more hours, broke bad news constantly, it was a lot mentally and then to lose your own colleagues +/- family/friends. I wouldnt wish it upon anyone.

I certainly think we deserve to be renumerated a lot more. From a personal POV, a lot of us are young and bright enough to change career paths. I dont want it to come to this, I would rather work in medicine but abroad before I did that.

Some people are bonkers on here. You cannot compare what a doctor goes through with a clerical worker. Or a trainee something. most trainees dont work around the clock, deal with life or death. Death.

Get real! Most peoples salary increases with age and experience, dont take something out of context and say its ok. Its not! But i guess the people dissing op are the ones keeping everyone down.

Right behind you OP!

Totally behind you. Thanks for everything you do x

40 I think

Bloody hell I get more than that on disability benefits

Thank you for explaining and not just being rude to me i really appreciate it. I 100% support it just wanted to know the bigger picture. I for one cannot afford to pay to go private again. The Nhs is on it's knees and this needs sorting.

Totally support you. Thanks for everything you do x

How nastier can you be?

Surely there is no point comparing your degree and pay or anyone else's to a doctor. The jobs and circumstances of people are entirely different. Don't turn on our doctors who do their jobs tirelessly. Pressure our politicians for change.A One off Wealth Tax may help address some of the inequality you are feeling.

Also OP, are you aware you'repaying emergency tax? Unless I'm mistaken or misreading it, it looks like you've paid £440 in emergency tax? I know this is an old payslip so did you get that back? @Juniordoc

That is shocking, OP. I'm so sorry.

I am 100% behind strikers. There is so much money wasted that could be spent on giving people who do a hard job an actual living wage.

Good luck x

Completely agree! Closing tax dodging loop holes would provide plenty of money to pay people proper salaries.

@herlightmaterials are you 1%er or on the dole?! Either way, you're definitely a Tory, so i kindly ask you to wind your neck in. This country is in the state it is because of successive tory governmemts leeching tax payers money and diverting it to their own or mates pockets.

I'm on minimum wage for almost 40hrs a week and earn just over £20,000 a year, so to me the doctor's earnings for the month look like a great pay to have. Upon looking up wages for doctors, which are below,I was amazed. To me personally, seem like huge amounts of earnings! I'd be very happy earning those amounts. But I also suppose it depends where you are in the country as to what your living costs will be.
I don't support striking, it's useless. It's the equivalent of a toddler tantrumming to get their own way and that's for anyone striking, not just doctors. If you don't like your pay, look to find another job or a different role.

Foundation training, you will earn a basic salary of £29,384 to £34,012 (from 1 April 2022).
If you’re a doctor starting your specialist training in 2022 your basic salary will be £40,257 to £53,398.
Specialty doctors and specialist payscaleIf you’re working as a specialty doctor you’ll earn a basic salary of £50,373 to £78,759. If you are a specialist grade doctor you'll earn a basic salary of £80,693 to £91,584.
ConsultantsAs a consultant from 1 April 2022, you'll earn a basic salary of £88,364 to £119,133 per year, depending on the length of your service.

I'm a solicitor and the comparison to trainee solicitors is not fair, it would be more accurate to compare FY1 doctors with NQ year solicitors who will be on much more than trainee solicitors

Because of the way doctors move hospitals every 6-12 months they often end up on emergency tax or not being paid. It usually gets sorted out eventually.

I totally support the junior doctors strike.
People seem to forget these are highly trained, intelligent and self reliant young people who could get a job as a doctor anywhere in the world. If they can earn more with a better quality of life in New Zealand, Australia, Ireland or anywhere else they will leave the UK. If the NHS is to survive it needs to offer reasonable pay and working conditions or there will not be enough doctors left to run the NHS.

My husband earned a meagre wage in his younger years whilst training and studying, his friends worked in the pits and earned a lot of money. Fast forward 40 years and he has a career and qualifications, and the pits are gone.

I’ve also read today that after 40 years service as a Dr in the NHS their pension is 75% of their salary. I worked in private industry and my pension was taken by the owners of the company. An NHS pension will never be stolen and they are very good.

trainees in most industries aren’t paid well in the beginning when still training. Unfortunately there’s a lot of sorting out needed in the NHS but a 35% pay rise is not affordable for anyone.

No problem. As a sidenote, we are patients too. I for one am waiting to be seen by the gynae/fertility team. Having put off trying for a baby because of our chaotic careers (been with DH for over 10yrs but often lived apart due to "training"). Time is obviously of the essence here but it's not like we can cut the queue. Our health service is crashing. I want it to be better - both for us to work in but mainly for the general public. My odds of IVF etc are declining by the day. I can't afford private.

People can complete degrees in any subject and convert to teaching with a PGCE. You are not comparing the same thing. Doctors are in training for five years to BECOME a doctor and are qualified BEFORE they start F1. I didn't rubbish teachers, I said you can't compare a PGCE with an F1 qualified doctor. But if you want me to compare the entry levels, you need significantly higher A Levels to be a doctor than to be a teacher and a medicine degree is a lot more involved than many degrees and that is just a fact.

Why does it speak volumes. £100K is not over the top for their skill set. If that makes you jealous, too bad.

Shocking 100% support

I’m so very sorry. Totally behind you all the way. This government’s blatant destruction of the NHS to pave the way for private healthcare, which the rich bastards will further financially benefit from, is behind all of this. Utterly loathe this government and don’t fear much better from Starmer

Not fair to compare a FY1 doctor to a NQ solicitor either as the NQ solicitor's salary can be as high as £150k if in London and a NQ lawyer would have been earning as a trainee in the previous 2 years while the doctor is still at medical school incurring 20k debt each year the trainee solicitor is earning. Most law firms don't pay anywhere near that but a NQ solicitor can change employers unlike junior doctors who have no option other than the NHS or going abroad. Also both are different jobs and are therefore not comparable.

Mine was also gynaecologist related. Women's health is not a priority i feel for you. Sorry you are going through that xx