Can I ask people here what is your opinion about NHS doctors striking?
What’s happened to the NHS over the last 15 years (or pretty much any public service) is a scandal.
NHS has been finished since Covid really, and things are only going to get worse, much worse is my feeling. The government have done an amazing job alongside the media to give the impression that doctors (particularly GP’s) are absolutely loaded, when in fact they get paid a fraction of what their counterparts in USA, Canada and Australia get paid.
There’s been a shortage of GP’s since 2015, and this has continued despite promises to increase numbers. You know what’s happening now? The government are effectively replacing GP’s with PA’s and ANP’s (non doctors). They’ve reduced the funding for primary care significantly over the past few years, hence why so many surgeries are closing as its not feasible to continue. However, they have created a pot of money that can only be used for additional staff (ARRS scheme) but can’t be used to employ doctors- hence surgeries then can’t afford GP’s but can employ other staff as they are effectively ‘free’ to them.
The pay is shocking for the amount of training, responsibility and workload doctors have. Most doctors now come out with £100k+ of debt, and get paid £14-15 pounds an hour in the first 2 years. This increases to £25-28 an hour when they are 4-8 years in. Just to be clear, they are named junior doctors but they work as doctors with all the responsibility.
The media and some public keep banging on about how great consultant pay is or the amazing pension- but is it really? Most consultants now start on a wage of £85k (can take 8-10 years to get here) and then pension scheme is significantly worse than older iterations of it. Also why does a pension matter when you’re getting screwed for almost all of your working life.
Now we know the pay is shit, but you know what’s worse? The actual work conditions. Honestly the stories you and what you come across is a disgrace for a country like the UK.
Pretty much everyone I know is planning on leaving the profession or going abroad. It’s actually scary how many have left and will leave soon.