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?

Conversely, I only know a couple who work in the private sector. It depends very much on the specialty - not many A&E consultants do private work, for example.

The Kings Fund estimates 53% of consultants do some private work. Interestingly, it is mostly older consultants doing it - less than 10% of consultants appointed in the last 5 years do any private work.

”It probably has to pay to get people to relocate there” - you do realise Ireland is a country, with Irish people living there? Where do you think these people are “relocating” from exactly? Irish consultant jobs are incredibly highly sought after, people wait years in locum positions to be appointed.

It’s the NHS that needs to pay people to relocate here. We are the ones with thousands of unfilled consultant posts, in unsexy specialties like geriatric medicine. We used to nick doctors from our former colonies, but Indian and Pakistani doctors are increasingly realising they would be better off emigrating to the US and Canada, instead of to the UK.

So it’s nuanced. Maybe A&E consultants get a pay rise to reflect their inability to take on other work. Although emergency care is now available privately in London, and other consultants do not get a rise because quite frankly some are already multi millionaires,

Young consultants will simply have to wait, all meaningful careers take time to build and establish reputations and credibility, why should they be the exception?

The US is no longer in favour.

Brilliant, nice of him to consider the wider profession and those he has helped pull the ladder up after himself, ew.

He “considered” the optics of someone in the top 1% of earners striking for pay tbh. It’s not a great look.

I wholeheartedly agree, especially when so many people can’t afford to even eat atm. We are in a COL crisis and soon to be recession.

Big deal they are striking. Get over it. Your ignorance beggars belief. Every post you write makes me physically cringe with embarrassment for you.

WTAF?

Scroll on by.
I have friends that are outstanding consultants and they are mortified that this strike is going ahead, and consider the five day JD strike as positively dangerous. So don’t talk to me about cringing, you need to get out more with normal folk and see how most people live. Whilst also working 80 hrs plus a week.

You have multiple consultant friends earning over £200k, and have travelled across the world. Your normal and mine are very different. It sounds like you are coming from a very privileged position where you won't ever need to be reliant on the NHS. In my world people wouldn't be able to afford to pay for private healthcare, so need the doctors in the NHS to be at the top of their game. And to get the best you have to pay competitively

There's a whole lot of scrolling to do to get past your ridiculous repetitive comments. It makes my hand hurt. So now you are working 80 hrs plus a week and hanging out with normal people. Why don't I believe that when you have spent the best part of the last 48 hours posting mindless drivel here.

No I don't support them. Not only are they already on a very high salary, most do not act in a way that reflects their specialist status. For example, you get referred to a neurologist for symptoms that are beyond the scope of a GP's knowledge. You expect to get a full work up, comprehensive examination, be actively listened to, appropriate investigations done and come away feeling assured that you are now in the right hands. Instead, all too often you walk away no better off than you were when you walked out of the GP's room. But this time you will feel belittled and dismissed, tearful that you have waited months for a consultation just for it to last all of 15 mins where the majority of that time was spent being interrupted by an egotistical 'specialist' in a suit who seems hell bent on proving you can't surely be sick. And God help you if you are intelligent. This will immediately put their defenses up. They cannot cope with being questioned. They want their patients to be ill informed, naive, submissive and basically in awe of them. Neurologists especially love throwing around the anxiety label. Especially if you are a woman with 'depression' on your noted. You don't stand a chance with them, before you even open your mouth they have formed an opinion of you. Years of training and yet they can't get past their own biases.

Sorry. I know that may offend some people who have received nothing but excellence from these consultants, or if their are any doctors on here sorry to be harsh but I have had one too many encounters with arrogant specialists who think it's beyond them to be humble and work in partnership with the patient.

I am sure there are amazing consultants out there and no doubt they put themselves through years of gruelling training to get where they are, which is admirable. However, I just can't support their pursuit for higher pay when the experiences I have had, and many others ( family, friends, people in the news and forums) leave you at best underwhelmed and at worst traumatised.

You don’t know any A&E or ITU consultants then. Because there is no private work for them.

Seriously? Who the hell do you think you are?

Sorry, I forgot you own this thread. 🙄

😉 Nope we all own this thread and what a warm fuzzy place it is too!

Well said.

My point, which you’ve spectacularly missed, is that ROI salaries are vastly better than the U.K. ones, so when people say that it’s very competitive out there and consultants can go elsewhere for much more money, it’s the truth, not hyperbole.

And us ROI consultants aren’t striking.

And I am trying to point out to you that in a very small country like Ireland the opportunity to earn millions and career progression will be limited - extremely limited.

A tiny country at just 5 million with a very small capital city versus 70 million in the U.K. and a global capital that is London with many cutting edge and world class hospitals and healthcare.

It is incomparable.

So of course Ireland will have to pay more to attract professionals because the consultants will be sacrificing opportunities and advancement to do so, with respect.

It's not just Ireland! It's Australia, New Zealand, Canada etc. i appreciate you've decided on your supposedly extensive travels that everywhere but the UK is unacceptable but other people might have other ideas.

Besides which you clearly went to Dubai for a pay increase/tax breaks - why in heavens wouldn't you imagine others might want to do similar!

Where are consultants earning millions?

Well NZ is similar to Ireland in terms of advancement and population size. Australia is only fractionally better.

We had a short term project in Dubai and quite frankly it couldn’t end fast enough. You are very welcome to try it out, I suggest you don’t sign a two year contract or longer.

Not annually but accumulative.