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?

You don’t want me to be on here because I am saying all the things you don’t want to hear. I can’t see ANY support for this, even amongst sympathetic groups.

I would call it off, at least that way you will retain some credibility in the eyes of the public. An embarrassing climb down is inevitable anyway

Yup the strike is about nhs salary.

For 40 hours week- full time job they pay scale is 88k, only getting to 119 k after spending 20 years as an nhs consultant ( say maybe in late 50s/ early 60s)

The strike is about the NHS salary

Can you get that into your head?

it has been eroded by 40% and is not sufficient to retain consultants to work in a full time nhs job

Capice?

I can’t see ANY support for this

Maybe if you bothered to listen you would. Like I said all broadcast, zero receive.

Nope there’s no climb down.

this has been 13 years in the making

Your ignorance is embarrassing

Well good luck!!! You are definitely going to need it, because your chances of success hover around 0 according to Wes Streeting.

I assume union reps are on here now because I am sure most consultants can read the mood music coming out of Labour and the current government and realise this is a total non starter.

This what capitalism seems to do. It’s all about the money in the end, accumulating more and more of the stuff feeding a vicious cycle and eroding altruism, values and morality.

Hey ho.

To what extent are the consultants expected to prioritise the needs of the country over their own? Should that be infinite?

You have not bothered to listen to the consultants on here who do not live the lavish lifestyle of your very well off consultant mates (the same ones who are so principled).

people, like HMPPS whose qualifications you quickly disparaged, who describe the hard slog they’ve done and continue to do and who well into their careers are not earning the eye watering amounts you suggest they do.

keep on with the moral outrage at these consultants wanting to protect their pay like any reasonable person would wish to do.

It’s not worth us wasting our time explaining basics to people like GCalltheway who can’t grasp even simple information presented.

There’s plenty of support from the majority of the country who want to use the NHS.

I'm wondering how many of those advocating that consultants should just suck it up have themselves had the equivalent of a >30% pay cut in real terms?

And are perfectly happy to have lost one third of their income, because other people earn less in the first place?

https://apple.news/AJ-rFfYt6Ql-7YXx__ZWJ-g

You seem not to be able to grasp that inflation and the cost of living will come down soon, so your argument over a ‘pay cut’ doesn’t really stack up but don’t let this mere fact stop you.

Guardian readers are made up of teachers and healthcare providers. A bigger more inclusive poll may indicate a very different picture. Echo chambers are real. Step outside of yours for a while maybe? 🤷🏼‍♀️

When you’ve lived as long as me you’ll understand that prices only ever go one way. This is a pay cut because NHS salaries haven’t gone up in real terms for more than ten years. The effects of inflation aren’t reversible.

You seem not to be able to grasp that inflation and the cost of living will come down soon, so your argument over a ‘pay cut’ doesn’t really stack up but don’t let this mere fact stop you.

Omg 🙈 I'm properly cringing with second hand embarrassment for you

Not just me then.

It’s more evidence that she’s not really listened to anyone but herself banging on about greedy doctors.

talk about deaf

It’s rather boring on this thread now with the union reps

😂😂😂😂

So clear off then!

there’s lots of support for this strike

the government could prevent this strike- they’ve had 13 years to treat consultants fairly

They’ve chosen not to do so, and consultants have no choice

It’s an Ipsos poll. Bugger all to do with Guardian readers.

Can’t believe a word you say Blossom, you’re the Union rep

😂

It’s rather tone deaf to be laughing at the prospect of the terrible harm and suffering that will hit the poor patients in the coming weeks. They are the only ones that are going to suffer after all.
Slow clap for you. Your mother will be proud 🙄

It will be exactly the same level of cover as on bank holidays including Christmas Day. I haven't heard anyone in government complain that bank holiday cover and the on call arrangements are dangerous. Consultants still work on bank holidays. We don't get them all off so we can go to Monaco on the private jet y'know :)

I've not had a Christmas Day and NY bank holiday off in my entire medical career. I've always worked at least one on call, often both when more junior.

It's a lot more dangerous in August due to changeover and new doctors starting, perhaps you could petition to change that?

@GCalltheway

Have you heard of the net beneficiaries and net contributors to the welfare state? The net beneficiaries are subsidised by the net contributors. So the working poor are certainly not going to be paying for the consultants pay rises, are they? They don’t even pay now for what they get out of the welfare state!

Provide the source of your assertion that a consultants’ pay rises will cost billions and billions?