The Junior Doctors Dispute

Perhaps they want to save or improve people's lives?

Perhaps they did the bulk of their training and accumulated a huge debt in tuition fees before the government changed the contract?

 

Pete, you're even more cynical than I am! It's still a vocation for some of them.

Armandii has summed up this dispute perfectly. As with all things with this government it is about slight of hand (much like Sajid Javid saying that they're exploring all possibilities in the steel crisis - exploring is very much like not upsetting Chinese trade relations by not acting on any possibility).

 

You don't take a job knowing hours, rates of pay et all and then spend the rest of your life moaning about it and striking.

You don't like it, simple solution ..... Get out ! ! !

 

They didn't. The government changed the terms.

If only life was that simple. What iftheir chosen profession is all they know? What if, even if they were happy to do something that paid much less, they couldn't possibly afford to because their very nice salary is mostly going on debts they accumulated while building their career?

 

@Anthony Rogers - I rarely disagree with you but @clueless is correct.

On the face of it they are getting a pay rise. But the government have jiggled the hours at which antisocial hours adjustment cut in so it will end up as a pay cut on paper. This quote from a doctor explains it best..............

"
Based on the existing salary and my current rota per year I work:
8 Saturday days(0800-2030), 8 Saturday nights (2000-0830), 8 Sunday days, 8 Sunday nights and 32 weekday nights along with other lates and standard (8-1730) days averaging 46 hours per week across the year, a fairly intense on call rota.

This qualifies me for 1A rota and my current salary at CT2 is £31 838 basic with a 50% supplement taking this to £47757 per year.

In three years time a CT2 on the same rota (who will have moved outside their pay protection baseline assuming they are an FY1 currently) will earn (based on the information given in the contract offer) £37400 basic but only £3947 extra for the antisocial hours involved giving £41347 gross, a pay cut (not to me personally but to the role which will be identical) of 13.4%"

Continuing......................

"This is further exacerbated by the fact that our additional banding is unpensionable currently but by increasing basic pay as a proportion of our salaries it will increase our pension contributions by a similar proportion, further impacting on net take-home pay."

http://blogs.channel4.com/factcheck/factcheck-junior-doctors-pay-cut/21890

Now the government (god bless them) have put in place pay protection until 2019 so that no doctors wages will go down until then. But after that..................

"In three years time a CT2 on the same rota (who will have moved outside their pay protection baseline assuming they are an FY1 currently) will earn (based on the information given in the contract offer) £37400 basic but only £3947 extra for the antisocial hours involved giving £41347 gross, a pay cut (not to me personally but to the role which will be identical) of 13.4%."

Furthermore, overtime currently kicks in after a 60 hour week but under the new contract it will not kick in until an 87 hour week (despite a theoretical limit of 72 hours in a week except for in unspecified extenuating circumstances).

Maybe James Naughtie got it right after all in this infamous clip..................

Spoiler: Video with unintentional swearing

So who wants to be treated by a shagged out and unmotivated doctor?

 

If you want to be angry at a doctor pick on your GP. Circa £100000 a year despite most refusing to do call outs and "only" working about 50 to 55 hours a week.

 

Could that be one of the carrots at the end of being a junior doctor??

My GP is only available on about three days a week, and the whole surgery is closed on thursday afternoons plus sat and sun.
So why do we all go to A&E?

Because there aint nowhere else to go.

You could ring 111, but in my experience, (only twice), it's a total waste of time, I got better advice via Google.

 

I phoned 111 once when I pulled a muscle in my back and couldn't move. I knew it was just a pulled muscle so that's why I phoned the non-emergency number looking for advice.

The stupid girl, and I say stupid because she didn't even understand basic human anatomy at a level that your average uneducated buffoon understands, sent an emergency ambulance, telling them I was having a heart attack.

I think to be fair though, when I said the pain was near my right shoulder blade, she asked if the pain was in my back or my shoulder. I explained it was my back, so she asked why I'd mentioned the shoulder. I explained the shoulder blades are in the upper back. Her script told her that acute stabbing pain in the upper back is definitely a heart attack.

 

I was, on both occasions, told a doctor would call me back.
I just said if it gets no better I'll go to A&E then.

I seem to remember they did call back though and the advice was to go to my GP on the monday morning, big joke, it takes two weeks to get an appointment.

Which is why I called 111 in the first place.

 

I seem to have a really good practice I can get an appointment if I ring in the morning, phone always picks up as more receptionists at peak call times. Care taken to see that I'm pointed in right direction X-ray, physio, etc, medication always updated and given the best they have ( I'm on morphine for pain now ).
I was in hospital 3 times recently and received the best possible care from the 2 hospitals I was in, I did notice that the agency nurses cut corners on occasions ( drips hung on curtain tracks, I had blood taken at 6.30am whilst asleep but it woke me up when the needle went in ).
2 nurses ( not agency ) unblocking a blocked sluice, they were gagging as the smell was vile and no special equipment to help them was available.
For me a vote for nurses all the time even though they have to pay to park in the hospital

 

At risk of being torn apart for saying something that goes against the standard opinion...

I've been in hospital a few times. You get nurses, so overworked that they barely have more than a couple of hours per shift to stand around gabbing at the nurses station desk. Meanwhile you lay there waiting often for hours for the doctor to appear, and when he/she does, he/she is visibly exhausted and has literally about 1 minute to talk to you before scurrying off to the next patient.

 

I wasn't going to put any more comments on this thread... however thank you for your kind comments....

I have been peeking in and out..

Is it just me... or am I doing my sums wrong here... but

Based on the existing salary and my current rota per year I work:
8 Saturday days(0800-2030), 8 Saturday nights (2000-0830), 8 Sunday days, 8 Sunday nights and 32 weekday nights along with other lates and standard (8-1730) days averaging 46 hours per week across the year, a fairly intense on call rota.

This qualifies me for 1A rota and my current salary at CT2 is £31 838 basic with a 50% supplement taking this to £47757 per year.

46 hours per week/5 days = 9.2 hours per day
Take off 1 hour lunch
2 x 15 minutes tea break or 1 x 30 minutes break = 7.5 hour day!
(p.s... they do take their breaks as the food is subsidised) a lot just eat at work as it saves a lot of money... which seems fair enough to me!

Just a normal working week...to most people... with less pay! or are my sums totally wrong!

I eat my lunch/tea/breakfast as I'm working and drink my coffee between tasks.. (not subsidised) but that's just me... to get the job done...I'm on call and many times been up in the middle of the night and early hours of the morning like a lot of other people in their job roles.

I do however, agree with some of the post

@Fern4 I think you and I are singing from the same hymn book

 

I stayed in a private hospital in the late 90's and the doctor was from alder hay and the nurses where students from Liverpool double shifting to make some money.

 

I was on call 24/7/365 I got no extra money and I could get 10 call outs over a weekend which triggered a payment. When I got complaints as I got all the call outs ( I lived nearest ), it went on to a rota. After that I never got any more, then it went onto a time off system and I had loads of free time getting the same pay as the others.