Resident doctors synicsl strike again

[uneffingbelievable]

The resident doctors have once again announced a 6 day strike to co incide with a bank holiday weekend.

Whilst I support fair pay and working conditions I have lost all sympathy with them. This is not poverty when you are being paid as a whole package 40-95000 gross on a 44 hr week depending on your seniority.

The arguments about lack of jobs did not stack up with more jobs going to home graduates than IMGS despite the hysteria and a huge number of home graduates not even bothering to apply.

They are coming across as tone deaf and entitled or am I missing something.

Depends if you want a functioning A and E etc. last week my DS started his shift with several life or death situations. He works part time as the 12 hour night shifts are wrecking his health . He could earn more working for big pharma and we are begging him to either change jobs or leave.

I've also had to cash in my pension so he can put down a deposit on a flat in an area of high cost housing and low recruitment

sorry cynical phone typing always bad

Blackmail again is it?

You realise junior doctors don't run a hospital on their own?

They’re such tiresome little whiners. If they fought on jobs only I’d give them the time of day. Any complaining about pay when the career average of a doctor must be the highest public sector salary going is entitled in the extreme.

@ElizabethFryIsSpinning Some people are square pegs in a round hole. Of course there can be traumatic situations but the ambulance drivers earn a lot less! If he cannot stand the heat etc…. It’s only for a short while and there’s so many other options. My DDs friend adores being a doctor and who else has already had whopping pay rises and has the tax payer stumping up 28% towards their incredibly generous pension. I’m with the government. It’s unrealistic and greedy.

I am somewhat less sympathetic than I was a few years ago but the fact is the austerity choices ate away at their pay growth and were nowhere near restoring it. They’re clearly very important and when things are high value you have to pay for them.

Pay starts at about £38k and increases to about £78k with progression through the scales.

£38k for a resident doctor is outrageous.

I support anyone's right to strike. I recognise that I benefit from decent working conditions precisely because people have fought for them, including taking strike action.

@OhDear111 please don't called paramedics "ambulance drivers" it's reductive of their qualifications and training.

Outrageously high or outrageously low? It’s not as though they’ve got on the job experience. What do you expect an engineer to earn for instance? An accountant?

You didn't have to. You chose to. What was stopping him from renting until he built up his own deposit, like many people on average wages do?

So that’s 38k for a 23 year old.
Plus shift / on call allowances etc, which takes the average to the mid 40s
Not bad considering they are brand new, and at the very start of their career.
if we were flush with money then people would be more sympathetic, but we are in a crisis. And these people know that. The BMA is not fit for purpose.

I'm an engineer and earn significantly more than that salary range. The starting salary is broadly similar to my starting salary 20 or so years ago.

Resident doctors do have experience. They don't enter their residency until they've qualified and they can't qualify without hands on experience. They then also have at least a couple years foundation experience.

That's after five years training at med school. And straight in looking after patients.

I also earn more than them doing a significantly less important job, 9-5, Monday to Friday.

They are undervalued and I would get some satisfaction from seeing the reaction if they did all go to places like Australian where they are valued.

Of if they all go and work for private health care and we end up with an American system , where poor and uninsured don't get treatment

Oh and you have to fill in insurance forms in A and E to see if you get any care .

They are asking for pay restoration off an indicator no one else uses, which inflates their demand.
If they use the one everyone else uses then the 3.5% being offered is pretty good when the comparision says about 5%

If they campaigned for a reduction in the interest rate on student loans for all students then I would whole heartedly support them

Well I'm an 'ambulance driver', but prefer to use my protected title of 'Paramedic', and I support the Junior Doctor strikes.
Their pay relative to there working conditions, with huge responsibility (particularly at night) and constant upheaval due to having to relocate for training post, often very long distances are not commensurate.

Well I'm a consultant and I'll vote to strike if we are balloted.

We were promised pay restoration 2 years ago. Once again we have a below inflation offer and the real kicker - one that is 1.5% below the uplift MPs got.

If we are all in it together let's all be in it together!

(And MPs didn't suffer the same level of pay erosion that the profession have. You can argue about the choice of metric and the extent of it, but there has been substantial pay erosion and working conditions are terrible).

I think a package where university fees are paid for, in exchange for an agreed period of nhs service and a commitment to more training posts would serve the medical profession better.
Another 28% pay rise will not address the biggest concern ( lack of training posts). It will probably exacerbate the problem - nhs trusts will likely leave training posts unfilled, to address the deficit the pay rises will create in the staffing budget.

There are plenty of options between the UK system and the US system, and most of them work much better too!

The problem is that today's Drs saw the profession as being well paid, respected and interesting . But since they started the long journey to being qualified, pay and conditions have been eroded, I don't think it's an attractive proposition anymore . A lot of Drs are only doing a part time job in the NHS out of compassion. They're getting the proper pay by doing aesthetics and pharma

Agree OP. They are selfish and entitled and think that they’re special just because they studied medicine. 23 year old kids with a LOT to learn who think and that they should be in mega bucks

Most 23 year olds would be happy to have a job in the current economic climate. Sick to death of their entitled whinging. Prove yourselves, and maybe you’ll earn more one day.

What does it matter what most 23 year olds would be happy with?
Most of those 23 year olds would have done different degrees or courses so their job market would be different. Their fight is different and in different sectors.