To leave the NHS

[Jennywren100]

Just that really. Worked in the NHS nearly 20 years. I'm a senior doctor in a front line speciality and I just don't think I can go on. There is no option to move into private practice (there is no private practice in my speciality in the UK), but feel sad at the thought of chucking in nearly a quarter of a century of training (if you include medical school) and experience.

The list of reasons for leaving is varied and long and I know many colleagues feel similarly to me but either have better coping mechanisms than me, care less, or for various reasons leaving simply isn't an option. And I know my department is actually better than many.

I already work part time and took extended leave over the summer to see if a break would help. It hasn’t. My colleagues love me and value me - they regularly tell me, so it’s not about feeling undervalued in my team. It’s about being completely overwhelmed in a failing system......and the public having not one scoobie of an idea that their beloved NHS is about to implode as they daily pour through the doors with an ever increasing list of demands and sense of entitlement and an ever decreasing sense of responsibility for themselves.

I feel like I will have wasted most of my life if I leave but I spend my day being super nice to patients and relatives and come home and am grumpy and miserable to DH and DC - the people who mean most to me in the world. Its all wrong. I have absolutely no idea what I would do if I left. There must be other MNers who feel like this?

I worked for a number of consulants for a number of years. I saw them become frustrated, depressed and some prematurely aged. Some didn’t get to age as the pressure got too much. Where the hell have we gone so wrong as a nation? Get out while you can and enjoy life- you only have one.

These threads make me really sad. I’m 20 years in myself but think that working in the community seems infinately better than acute. The money isn’t as tight - as it’s so much cheaper to run a community service but i feel very sorry for those in acute/inpatient/emergency services

I’m an NHS critical care sister. If I could go back in time to when I was leaving school I’d have become a plumber. It’s awful.

I was in the nhs for 13 years, mental health services. I left this year and can relate to every part of your op. Can we tweet a link link to this thread to Matt Hancock??

nolongersurprised

Genuine question: do you think some people don't value the NHS because it is free?. Definitely! There was a time we offered free Weight Watchers vouchers to patients. Nobody. Lost. A. Single. Pound. How shocking is that?!

Some patient groups do value the NHS, I see it every day, mainly older adults but younger generations (under 65) really have a tough time appreciating the limits and purpose of what the NHS can do. The entitlement is breathtaking

Possibly outing but I recently left the NHS, I was a press officer, and I don't regret it for a minute.

One of the reasons I left was because of the total bullshit I had to come out with. If there was a fuck up somewhere, management only cared about how it made the Trust look, far more than they cared about fucking up. I was basically a spin doctor. I was always tasked with finding 'good news stories' to help the Trust's reputation - but people aren't thick, it's a Trust that was in special measures, and our team pretending all was lovely and fluffy didn't improve staff morale. That's another thing management didn't care about - only appeared to. But actually when presented with sickness figures the SMT would turn their lip up in disgust that the Trust has so many 'skivers', rather than think that maybe people's mental health was shot to pieces. They would always say how unacceptable it was but never actually thought "maybe it's us".

To top it all off, in support and management roles, you don't get a job based on your skills and experience. You get it if your mate is on the interview panel. If they're a really good mate they'll even create a band 7 non-job for you. I know a few band 7 managers who have 2 GCSEs between them and probably couldn't count to ten if they tried. But they knew the right people. It's utterly depressing, never again. It's going to sink before it swims and the hard working staff and patients deserve so much better.

Where do you all work?!! Where I am there is this whole transparency thing where you are constantly scrutinising everything you do and having to give a billion assurances that you have rectified it and won’t do it again, essentially one huge continuous data cleanse. That’s what’s driving staff away because I have to babysit/parent everything they do, hold their hands, rap their knuckles and endlessly train them to be better nurses (robots)

gunpowder I reckon we worked for the same trust did it begin with N?

OP, you will easily get a job at Deloittes or similar. You’ve given 20 years, time to put yourself first.

I'm in Australia, and know so many HCPs that have moved here for all the reasons you are talking about. In fact a brand new surgery opened up at the end of my street last year that is owned and run by a lovely family from Birmingham. My UK and Irish HCP friends all tell me they are not only paid better here, but that the system, while not perfect, is much better resourced and supported, and that is evident to me in the care that patients receive. I can walk into the docs without an appointment and be seen within half an hour, and its bulk billed so no charge. When my son needed emergency surgery, the care he received was exemplary, and the children's hospital was equipped with, among other things, a parents kitchen on each floor, a free video game arcade on the roof, and play-stations and DVD players for the use of all the children. My relatives back in the UK who work and use the NHS tell me of a woefully over-stretched service, and this thread just makes me worry for all of you!

I really don't understand how we afford the NHS, or in fact the school system etc. And I earn a good salary. I imagine there are a lot of rich people that pay a hell of a lot of tax. Maybe those ridiculously priced London houses generate a lot of tax.

It's not free though. Taxes pay for the NHS. That's what people don't get. The NHS was designed for people who were utterly desperately in need. Not for people who have drunk too much on a weekend. Not for the morbidly obese. Not for people who've smoked 40 a day for 50 years. As a society we have lost all sense of accountability. My grandad for example would never have dreamt of going to A And E for some minor ailment, he would have had the common sense and respect for people who might urgently need a doctor for a life or death situation. You only need read some of the crazy 'shall I go to a and e' threads on here to realise we seem to have lost the plot when it comes to the NHS. No accountability for your own health, stuff your face with cheeseburgers, get pissed, smoke fags, oh it's OK, the system will fix it. Well it won't, because it's broken.

If you can leave, leave. And I think a lot of the public know what is happening ... I do, but what can we do about it? The government are going to go ahead anyway. I voted for Labour in a desperate attempt to stop the government but there are still people out there who can't see it or don't want to see it or don't care?? Tell us how we can change it and I'm sure some of us will try.

I’m a Gp who left the uk 4 years ago for canada and love it. It’s hard work and has its bad days but the autonomy I have is next to none. I run my clinic how I want to with no interfere. Good luck op

• interference

Labour contracted several ridiculously unaffordable PFI’s that are still being paid off (at great profit to the companies); it’s not a case of one political party fixing it. I agree about people taking it for granted, but some younger people appreciate it for what it is.

BellMcEnd me too. I fantasize about being a long-distance lorry driver! All that time to yourself... Am actively looking for work outside the NHS.

nottakenpersonally my problem is I have NO idea what else I could do! I’ve only ever wanted to be a nurse. I love the actual job ifyswim, it’s the shite that goes with it now. It’s so depressing. I work with such an amazing multidisciplinary team but we’re all so fed up with everything. The CQC are due in October which isn’t helping.

I'm a nurse planning to retire next year at 55 but frankly, I don't think I'll survive another year without having a breakdown. The NHS is an absolute mess and I just can't see any way it can get better. Currently trying to work out if I can take the financial hit of retiring at 54 instead, but it does make quite a big dent in retirement income.

Watching this thread with interest as a fellow NHS worker feeling the same.

I think obesity and smokers exist in most developing and developed countries . I don’t think the patients are the sole reasons for what ails people in this thread ?

Decentralised management with multiple layers of management
Wasted time and effort due to a weak IT system
A system and culture that doesn’t look after the workers
A Government that persistently refuse to raise taxes as they don’t want to lose power but extra money and charges is the easiest way to address some of the issues

The culture one is trickier . Not one person wants to see a consultancy hired . But with more money plugged in there will be some breathing space and time too look at how to streamline and improve working conditions

I don’t even work for the NHS but as a user this strikes me .

I work in mental health services and feel exactly the same... in fact I had to leave my last two posts because I was being asked to do more and more with less resources and time. I can remember just sitting in my car crying on the day I decided to leave that position.

Still in mental health. I'm no longer being asked to do tasks above my skill set / grade but the moral of the team is awful. It's the few and far between patients who genuinely need help that keep us going to be honest.

@Misty9 it does! Although I'm not sure how much that narrows it down 🤣

gunpowder next letter S?