Is there sympathy for consultants striking?

[LadyTemperance]

Just as the thread title says, do you feel sympathy for the consultant doctors pay demands. I understand their pay has not gone up for many years meaning they have had a cut in real terms. That being said a quick google tells me they start on 88k and have regular pay rises not based on performance.
They are hardly on the bread line are they?

Life is great as an expat for about ten months and then it wears thin.

They have got a lot of responsibility. But they are sufficiently well paid IMHO.

So your basing this purely on the fact that you personally, like living in the UK?

Right then.

I hate this attitude it's so ignorant. Getting accepted onto a medicine degree, the training and the subsequent bullshit required to reach consultant is hard and the vast majority complete it because they care. People stay in a crumbling, challenging and ridiculous system because they care. Thinking ah well my child will be different because they'll actually care and won't be arsed about money is ridiculous. A JD starts on £28k currently, if this was essentially cut 35% in real terms would they really be content to do this demanding job with a high level of responsibility and tonnes of debt for £18,200? People who care recognise that things have to change.

So someone who has worked all around the world doesn't think other people will move for better opportunities/more money.
Right.

No, I am saying meds should definitely go and experience other places and maybe appreciate what they have here.

It’s used as a threat, we will leave if you don’t pay what we demand. My answer to that is it’s definitely not as easy as that, when you get to there it might be very different. Security and safety are taken for granted here. I think we will manage thanks!

Did you say ‘care’?? Ummm. I would beg to differ.

Yes.
Because people are more than happy that their solicitor charges £300 per hour, but not someone on call overnight to save their life.
Or £100 an hour for their plumber.

The government did a weird work over on the public thinking everyone in the NHS is a charity volunteer and should work overtime for free and be shafted constantly

@GCalltheway

They're not threatening if, they're actually doing it. It's already happening.

People are needlessly dying everyday due to the state of the NHS, the lack of medical staff (amongst other HCPs) and a lack of resources. People care and know striking is the only way to have a chance at change, plus at the end of the day it's just a job and People should remember that.

I know a few consultants, they all have additional properties & are paid very well.

Anyway this is all a short term problem as AI will replace most jobs in medicine. It’s not so far away. My friend has been involved with AI surgery and 3d tech.

No it won't.

Quite that is my experience too - then someone screams jealous on the thread - the two arguments don’t sit well together do they!

Yes I do. Why should anyone's pay be worth so much less than it was before?

Regardless of how much they earn. They aren't working less.

Everything is rising, except wages.

@Chocolateship I think you are missing my point. I have a DC who is a medic. They were extremely bright (like most medics) and could have chosen anything as a career path. They chose medicine because they couldn't imagine doing anything else. It's all they ever wanted to do. They didn't get into it because it was some sort of financial gravy train like the poster I commented on said. I was making the point that they could have been a hedge fund manager if they had been motivated by money. They are not in it for the money but they should be paid what they are worth. Have a look at city salaries and then think again whether they are overpaid. They are absolutely not and their skill set means that they should be very well remunerated. If not them then who FFS.

Lmao no it won't, it will supplement aspects of it but it won't replace medics. Do you think doctors simply work bedside in hospitals anyway?

So the backlog will lessen with five days of strikes will it?? Riiiiigght.

How bloody charitable of you to add to the carnage for your own benefit…

I don’t actually know of any middle aged doctors and consultants that own a single house thinking about it, all have weekend houses or city flats in London. One memorably has three houses in different locations.

We can see that this is not a life of hardship.

The key here, being middle aged.

Why do we have a backlog?

Between February 2012 and February 2020, the elective care waiting list grew by nearly 2.2 million. Comparing to other countriess_, it is easy to find potential reasons.:
• Funding: between 2013 and 2019, UK per capita spending on healthcare grew by 2 per cent per annum, compared to 3 per cent in the EU2.
• Staffing: in 2020, the UK had 3 doctors per 1,000 people, compared to 4 in the EU1 .
• Capacity: the UK had 2.4 hospital beds per 1,000 people in 2020, compared to 5.0 in the EU, and an above average occupancy rate (90 per cent in 2019, compared to 73 per cent in the EU).

www.kingsfund.org.uk/blog/2023/02/what-caused-uks-elective-care-backlog-how-can-we-tackle-it

We've been in a poor position for years. Now the Government want to pin it on staff.

Yes and younger doctors must be patient. You are earning a decent salary whilst you cut your teeth. Maybe you feel entitled to sports cars and second home’s immediately the day you graduate but it doesn’t work that way, sorry.

This is special child syndrome en masse playing out here. It takes years to build most careers.

My friend left for Canada, he was a leading consultant in his field, he earns 3 x as much and his modest 3 bed house in the U.K. was sold and they have an amazing 6 bed mansion.