turner
I can be a friend to you
So you all might have seen in the news that the Government are trying to impose a new contract on junior doctors. I'm a junior doctor and thought I'd put a post on here because there's a lot of misinformation in the press. First, you should all know that "junior" doctors are often quite senior; the term is used for all doctors below consultant level. I've been a paediatrician for eleven years: I'm currently a registrar on a Children's Intensive Care Unit and at night time I'm the most senior doctor on the unit for a thirteen hour night shift.
The Government are trying to impose a contract (with no negotiation) which will essentially mean a pay cut of about 20%. They are also taking away the safeguards that prevent junior doctors working unsafe hours.
You might think that junior doctors earn a lot of money, and in some ways we do but largely because we work a lot of hours, and we do a lot of unsocial hours. A new doctor fresh out of medical school gets a basic salary of 23k, but will have graduated with a debt of 60-80k. We also have to pay thousands for our exams, we have to pay the General Medical Council £500 a year, our insurance is about the same. We also have to pay hundreds out of our own pockets for our own training.
It's not just about money though. This contract will be unsafe because it will mean doctors, who are already tired, working longer shifts with fewer breaks, and the government will also take away the monitoring process that means hospitals are prevented from making doctors work long (unpaid) hours. This is going to be bad for patient safety. It's well known that tired professionals make more mistakes. It also means there will be fewer doctors. In my specialty, paediatrics, we cannot attract enough doctors to the specialty (20% of our registrar posts are unfilled.) These contract changes will make it even more difficult to attract people to specialties like paediatrics and A&E, specialties which have real shortages. Junior doctors are worried about the unsafe working conditions that this contract puts us in.
So we are very likely to go on strike (obviously arrangements will be made to ensure emergency care is provided safely.) The media, who are as biased on non-impartial as you might imagine, are misrepresenting the situation and the doctors themselves. You will hear a lot about how this is about our greed, or about not wanting to have a "7 day NHS." I already work 7 days a week; 40% of my shifts are night shifts! I'm not going to pretend money is not an aspect of it: could you take an instant 20% paycut? But you should all be aware that these cuts represent a real threat to patient safety and are an attack on the NHS, one of many that are on the way.
So support your junior doctors, support us standing up for the NHS and don't believe everything you hear in the media.
The Government are trying to impose a contract (with no negotiation) which will essentially mean a pay cut of about 20%. They are also taking away the safeguards that prevent junior doctors working unsafe hours.
You might think that junior doctors earn a lot of money, and in some ways we do but largely because we work a lot of hours, and we do a lot of unsocial hours. A new doctor fresh out of medical school gets a basic salary of 23k, but will have graduated with a debt of 60-80k. We also have to pay thousands for our exams, we have to pay the General Medical Council £500 a year, our insurance is about the same. We also have to pay hundreds out of our own pockets for our own training.
It's not just about money though. This contract will be unsafe because it will mean doctors, who are already tired, working longer shifts with fewer breaks, and the government will also take away the monitoring process that means hospitals are prevented from making doctors work long (unpaid) hours. This is going to be bad for patient safety. It's well known that tired professionals make more mistakes. It also means there will be fewer doctors. In my specialty, paediatrics, we cannot attract enough doctors to the specialty (20% of our registrar posts are unfilled.) These contract changes will make it even more difficult to attract people to specialties like paediatrics and A&E, specialties which have real shortages. Junior doctors are worried about the unsafe working conditions that this contract puts us in.
So we are very likely to go on strike (obviously arrangements will be made to ensure emergency care is provided safely.) The media, who are as biased on non-impartial as you might imagine, are misrepresenting the situation and the doctors themselves. You will hear a lot about how this is about our greed, or about not wanting to have a "7 day NHS." I already work 7 days a week; 40% of my shifts are night shifts! I'm not going to pretend money is not an aspect of it: could you take an instant 20% paycut? But you should all be aware that these cuts represent a real threat to patient safety and are an attack on the NHS, one of many that are on the way.
So support your junior doctors, support us standing up for the NHS and don't believe everything you hear in the media.
