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?

Let’s face it, pay in the public sector is in crisis across the board. No one will want to do these jobs that are essential to running a country. I can’t talk because I’ve left for a lower stakes, better paid job in the private sector, but even so. It’s a disaster and we are all going to suffer. Where is the solidarity? People arguing amongst themselves instead of turning on our leaders is exactly what they want. The bloody millionaire Rishi Sunak, telling us all to knuckle down. Fuck that, your politics is destroying civil society.

Definitely get rid of the NHS....

See my above post - £100 to save a leg or a life at the moment is what I'm charging... I'm asking for £130

I'm really looking forward to finding out what people think the market rate might be when they're lying in A&E with half of their tibia sticking out of their leg and a ruptured spleen after being hit by a car - now that's what I call a negotiating position....

Or, we can listen to what the professionals who actually work in the system are saying about what can be done to try and restore the NHS to what was, 15 years ago, the 2nd highest rated healthcare system in the world. Even this week's Kings fund report which slated us on outcomes had to concede that it was pretty good considering the dire resources.

It is a very dark day when the very people tasked to save lives, walk away for a pay rise.

Maybe they became desensitised during the pandemic, or they qualify on academic ability purely and have no real empathy or compassion - whatever it is, something has gone very wrong with the kind of people we have supposedly in a caring life savibg profession knowingly walking out and leaving the patients in dire straits without as much as a backward glance.

Every consultant and doctor I know in mid 40s have very comfortable wealthy life styles and do a mix of nhs and private work.

FFS increasing everybody’s salary is just fuelling inflation.
We (individually) need to accept that we can’t afford things that we could afford not that long ago. Things will get better after a while but for now this is the situation.
But as groups decide to strike and get a raise/bonus then of course others won’t want to be left out and will do the same. And the prices continue to rise…

Planned obsolescence for the NHS is what the government have been working on for many years. Disappointing to see so many in support of it. The NHS is still highly regarded around the world, healthcare for everyone, free at the point of use. Try living without that, seeing your fellow humans sicken and die without access to healthcare, it’s not how I want to live. I don’t trust the government to implement a decent solution post NHS like the models in similar EU countries, they will go for the disaster of the USA.

Yes I support them. You don't suddenly lose your workplace rights, union rights or need for dignified working conditions just because you earn over X amount.

I absolutely support them. Why shouldn't their wages keep more or less in line with inflation? Their jobs haven't got any easier now they take home less, or the responsibilities any smaller.

@GCalltheway I don’t personally know any medics who are against the strikes. The results of the strike ballot speak for themselves. Babies, children and pensioners won’t suffer. There will still be consultant cover, just staffed as Christmas Day/any other bank holiday.
I can’t say it any better than @FullTimeFurore.

They’ve had a pay cut of 35% in real terms since the tories have been in power. I’m sure they didn’t sign up for that.

I don’t blame any of our hcps for leaving the profession for higher (or just better terms) paid work in other sectors. Or for emigrating for better prospects.

Good luck paying for the private health acre that everyone is going to need soon.

Drop the hyperbole please! Why can't they strike if they are not getting what they should be? They are people. Not martyrs or slaves or Mother Teresa. And rather than sitting up there judging, maybe take a look at what is required to even get into med s school and to actually get through it and you will see that it is about a lot more than just academics.

Don't support strikes. Yes they have sacrificed a lot, as so many people across different occupations for a fraction of the salary.

Those I work with are on over a hundred grand on the NHS. Work Monday to Friday, no nights or weekends. Can become lead consultant/clinical/medical director etc for an extra £40000.

Earn the same again doing private work part time. Lovely homes, holiday homes in the likes of Abersoch. Send children to private school.

Not saying they don't deserve their salaries, other occupations are worth higher salaries too. But where I am once they reach mid 30's as a consultant seem to have it all, financially anyway.

Your post is actually disgusting.

People are not lumps of flesh on a hospital conveyor belt as you cynically add up the costs of their injuries!

If you had any maths ability whatsoever your extra £30 ‘a leg’ demand for every single person doing your job equates to hundreds of millions we just don’t have atm!!! FFS.

Jesus H Christ please tell me you are not a medic or actually working anywhere in medicine.

Why should any worker accept year on year pay erosion?
Particularly when there is a shortage of those skills & high levels of inflation?

This isn't a new issue, medical unions have been complaining for a decade. The Government has been busy ducking and diving from this issue for years.

@GCalltheway it's a very dark day when a nation sleepwalks into the health system going into meltdown because the Daily Mail printed some crap about doctors being filthy rich.

They train for a long time, work hard, take incredibly stressful decisions, why shouldn't they be paid well?

Not paying them well means we don't have enough doctors. Having recently had a child in hospital, I know what not having enough doctors/nurses feels like and I do not recommend it.

That's my experience too. I'm not saying they don't deserve it but the NHS is an extremely diverse workplace and salaries will be increased for all consultants, not just the night-shift working surgeons.

I absolutely support them. Pay erosion through wilful destruction of ghe NHS must be fought. This is far bigger than just money.

I think the problem is they can go to the private sector and earn a lot more. So in order to encourage people to start the training to be a consultant or keep the current ones we have the pay rises need to happen. The NHS employ a lot of high level doctors through agencies and they get paid a lot. My consultant could work 4 days a month for an agency and earn his current salary.

Actually, you're right.

I've had a rethink. I'm off to be an accountant instead.

Do your own limb reconstruction.

It is one of timing. We are in the middle of a very serious perilous cost of living crisis that is about to get far worse in the next few months!

If the numbskulls in the union had any sense whatsoever they would hold off until inflation is under control and things have stabilised and appeal to a Labour government next year, but that wouldn’t suit their agenda would it, because these strikes are ENTIRELY politically motivated with scarce public support.

The NHS is well funded, but it is collapsing under its own weight. Literally a bottomless pit of ever expanding needs with an aging population.

Doctors and consultants are very well paid with jobs for life, excellent pensions and total security. Which is much more than most!

It would be a cold day in hell when I would let someone like you near me. I would rather never walk again.

I have so much more sympathy for the terribly paid nurses who could not afford to strike.

Me too, nurses with zero or limited prospects of earning serious money later on the career ladder.

Why should Consultants hold off?

Their pay has been cut in real terms by 35% since 2008.

They've been on strike twice before - once in 2012 and once in 1975 (I think).

It's not like they've jumped in to taking industrial action - they've raised this issue time and again and been ignored.

Now that is a disgusting comment. Believe me if you had your tibia poking out of your leg you would let the PP operate on you if that was your option. Saying you would rather not walk again is disgusting. Also, you totally misread their posts. They were purely illustrating their point with the £ and it wasn't a reflection of their attitude to caring for people. It clearly went right over your head. Probably part of the reason why they are doing their job and you couldn't.

Honestly, it doesn’t matter whether you think they should get a pay rise or not.
What matters is that said consultants are leaving in droves.
Junior doctors even more.
All because working conditions are better else where.

And if you want to be able to see a specialist when you need it, then that’s what need to happen.

So the question isn’t ‘do they deserve a pay rise’ but ‘do you want to be able to see a consultant when you need one?’