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My gripe is really with all doctors in the NHS who are constantly complaining that they are not being paid enough. I don't know how they can possibly complain about their salary! I have trained as Biomechanical Podiatrist and also spent my hard earn money to train for a second degree as a Physiotherapist.
At the moment in my PCT the doctors are complaining that they are not getting enough money for their service and also that waiting lists are too long. Are they for real? I'm sorry, but I just can't feel any sympathy for them.
I think I have found the solution and it revolves around the fact that there are two sections to the NHS, the Diagnosis and Rehabilitation sector. The reason the Diagnosis' queues are so long is the fact that we on the Rehabilitation side have not enough resources to make the patients become independent again. This means we can't free up space to help reduce the diagnosis queue.
Due to the lack of funding, we as a sector have to keep patients on the "Doctors Books". This basically means what should have been a 3 month rehabilitation period ends up taking 9 months because of the lack of equipment and money available to us.
Doctors moan... they haven't got enough money to fill their Land Rovers and BMWs
Meanwhile the doctors feel that it's okay to moan, presumably because they haven't got enough money to fill their Land Rovers and BMW's!
OK, so here's my solution to the problem. Why don't we stop giving the Doctors money every time they moan about their 'poor' salary and give it the people in the rehabilitation sector who actually interact with the patients and who get to know and understand them. These people are working hard to give patients the power to enter society again? Surely that deserves financial recognition as well?
Does anyone else out there feel the same?
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To Nick, below:
Your comment is simply insulting and ill-informed. It is based on pure ignorance and speculation.
I have just completed 6 years of medical school and I leave with £35k of debt in the form of a student loan that I will have to pay off. My mother (sewing-machinist) and father (fabricator/welder) certainly could not pay any fraction of this off on my behalf.
There are many others in my position, most likely comprising a majority of medical students and newly-qualified doctors, that do not have "rich" parents to pay off their student loans.
I have worked incredibly hard, studying for the past 8 years and I've had to sacrifice a lot in my life to be able to be committed to the textbooks and the medical wards. All medical students declare their commitment to the GMC's Duties of a Doctor upon qualifying (similar to the Hippocratic Oath), in which the first and foremost duty is to "make the care of the patient your first concern". I'll be damned if more than a mere handful of UK-trained doctors don't adhere closely to this principle during their years of dedicated practice.
09/07/14 JS
Your comment is simply insulting and ill-informed. It is based on pure ignorance and speculation.
I have just completed 6 years of medical school and I leave with £35k of debt in the form of a student loan that I will have to pay off. My mother (sewing-machinist) and father (fabricator/welder) certainly could not pay any fraction of this off on my behalf.
There are many others in my position, most likely comprising a majority of medical students and newly-qualified doctors, that do not have "rich" parents to pay off their student loans.
I have worked incredibly hard, studying for the past 8 years and I've had to sacrifice a lot in my life to be able to be committed to the textbooks and the medical wards. All medical students declare their commitment to the GMC's Duties of a Doctor upon qualifying (similar to the Hippocratic Oath), in which the first and foremost duty is to "make the care of the patient your first concern". I'll be damned if more than a mere handful of UK-trained doctors don't adhere closely to this principle during their years of dedicated practice.
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Dave's doctor won't know it's him because he does not use his real name, he is too scared to.
16/06/14 On the tern
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LOL, I hope you never get sick Dave. Enough said.
16/06/14 anon
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Doctors are the worst bunch of parasites and scavengers of this world. They rely on other people becoming ill to make their money. Enough said.
10/06/14 Dave
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The idiot who wrote that Gp clinics are closed 12-2 and seems to think gps are having a 2hr lunch break is a fool. When do you think house calls get done or referral letters written or bloods chased or prescriptions checked or calls to 20 patients who have asked you to call them back after uve finished seeing all the patients you've seen that morning happens? There are 10 minute appointments due to the sheer demand from the public and if longer was spent than that getting an appointment would be even harder. People have no clue what GPs do the ones who think it is easy
10/06/14 Rally
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I am a doctor in training and find the original article above and comments below so ill informed that it is shocking and does a disservice to doctors.
First of all, any comment which generalises starts on a wrong path. To suggest that all doctors are overpaid is a gross generalisation.
Let's take the person who originally wrote this article- a podiatrist.
Interestingly a band 5 podiatrist newly qualified in the UK has a starting salary on the NHS of £21,176, based on a 37.5 hour working week.
A junior doctor, newly qualified at FY1 level, has a starting salary of £22,636 if they were working an 'unbanded' post i.e. similar to the 37.5 hour weeks above. Junior doctors then get paid banding depending on the out of hours work and their unsociability. But even allowing for this, all told it amounts to less than £2 per hour extra than the podiatrist.
So if you're statement is that 'doctors are overpaid', then are you suggesting that podiatrists are too? Furthermore, on a like for like basis 1st year junior doctors are paid in the region of £1460 a year more than a podiatrist, or put another way £121 per month. In spite of the fact that the junior doctor has had an extra year of training, with higher entrance requirements to the university course to begin with, and has significantly higher responsibility with respect to life and death decisions such as cardiac arrests, acute medical emergency assessment and treatment, death certification and cremation, prescribing medications including those on the controlled drugs register.
So, this all said, do you really think 'doctors' are overpaid? The salary of doctors higher in the pay grade i.e. consultant and above, could be debated further, and I'm not here to that. My point is don't generalise and appreciate that actually some doctors are perhaps not paid as much as the role and its responsibilities suggest it should be.
16/05/14 Donald
First of all, any comment which generalises starts on a wrong path. To suggest that all doctors are overpaid is a gross generalisation.
Let's take the person who originally wrote this article- a podiatrist.
Interestingly a band 5 podiatrist newly qualified in the UK has a starting salary on the NHS of £21,176, based on a 37.5 hour working week.
A junior doctor, newly qualified at FY1 level, has a starting salary of £22,636 if they were working an 'unbanded' post i.e. similar to the 37.5 hour weeks above. Junior doctors then get paid banding depending on the out of hours work and their unsociability. But even allowing for this, all told it amounts to less than £2 per hour extra than the podiatrist.
So if you're statement is that 'doctors are overpaid', then are you suggesting that podiatrists are too? Furthermore, on a like for like basis 1st year junior doctors are paid in the region of £1460 a year more than a podiatrist, or put another way £121 per month. In spite of the fact that the junior doctor has had an extra year of training, with higher entrance requirements to the university course to begin with, and has significantly higher responsibility with respect to life and death decisions such as cardiac arrests, acute medical emergency assessment and treatment, death certification and cremation, prescribing medications including those on the controlled drugs register.
So, this all said, do you really think 'doctors' are overpaid? The salary of doctors higher in the pay grade i.e. consultant and above, could be debated further, and I'm not here to that. My point is don't generalise and appreciate that actually some doctors are perhaps not paid as much as the role and its responsibilities suggest it should be.
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Anon I'm glad you've had a good experience with the NHS and long may it continue.
However when you have a bad experience then your opinion will change overnight.
I personally have never visited a doctor or a hospital where the experience has been anything but poor, and all my visits were not even life threatening.
I think all medical professionals are over paid and offer poor services for the amount of money they cost. I would rather have my taxes back and be allowed to choose my own medical insurance.
25/03/14 Wick
However when you have a bad experience then your opinion will change overnight.
I personally have never visited a doctor or a hospital where the experience has been anything but poor, and all my visits were not even life threatening.
I think all medical professionals are over paid and offer poor services for the amount of money they cost. I would rather have my taxes back and be allowed to choose my own medical insurance.
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Well that's you're opinion - Grant it hospitals are bullying both doctors and admin but especially the patients with making fuss and end of bed fees. Almost anything that can be done on the wards, except for their operations and breathing they will charge you for it. But don't blame them and don't point the finger at the real culprit or the auxiliary nurses. We don't let them to do this by continuing to be treated there and then complain afterwards. I'm done with operations. I've gone to a private hospital and I haven't looked backed!
24/03/14 collar
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I think podiatrists and physiotherapists and all other allied health professionals do an excellent job. Doctors are just one part of the healthcare machine. They are however the part that makes the life/death decisions. They can lose their license and livelihood anytime any day try working in a busy A&E during a night shift its not easy or fun. That's why they get paid as much as they do.
If you don't like it then maybe you did the wrong course and should have had the brains for medicine. Although you've posted this article so I doubt you do.
24/03/14 anon
If you don't like it then maybe you did the wrong course and should have had the brains for medicine. Although you've posted this article so I doubt you do.
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"We work long hours" what a laugh, I have just been to the local surgery in my 1/2 hour lunch break. It was closed for lunch. 12.00 till 2.00. enough said.
20/12/13 boblet
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Do any of the so-called "professionals" earn the money they are paid?
Bankers, Lawyers, Accountants, Estate Agents, Doctors (GPs), Optometrists, Solicitors, Directors of companies ...
The world is full of greedy people.
We have a right to know exactly how much of these people are paid for what they do. When you see an Audi or a BMW you know that you have overpaid one of these geysers!
20/12/13 Down with the BMW club
Bankers, Lawyers, Accountants, Estate Agents, Doctors (GPs), Optometrists, Solicitors, Directors of companies ...
The world is full of greedy people.
We have a right to know exactly how much of these people are paid for what they do. When you see an Audi or a BMW you know that you have overpaid one of these geysers!
8
Today I waited over an hour beyond the time set for my appointment with my NHS GP. After 6 minutes in his consulting room discussing/stating the main reason why I was there, a serious medical matter, he then said to me that I had another 4 minutes to discuss anything else. BAH!
4 minutes? Why are these doctors timing their consultations? What ridiculous time and motion expert has set up this regime? It already took me 3 days to book this appointment. [See "Can't get a Doctor's Appointment" gripe].
There is gross inefficiency in the way the service is being provided.
17/12/13 Whose Time is More Valuable?
4 minutes? Why are these doctors timing their consultations? What ridiculous time and motion expert has set up this regime? It already took me 3 days to book this appointment. [See "Can't get a Doctor's Appointment" gripe].
There is gross inefficiency in the way the service is being provided.
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nah, doctors don't have student loans to pay. Most of them have rich mummy and daddy who have paid for their education and picked them up from uni driving their BMWs every Friday afternoon. Let's be honest, nobody from a humble background can afford to go through all those years in medical school. Most doctors come from middle class families and have deliberately chosen their career so as to earn a big salary and rip us taxpayers off. They and their families are mostly snobs with their noses stuck up in the air and they cannot care less about patients.
18/06/13 Nick
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The most ill-used term I hear from UK GP apologists is: "I/we work hard."
In my opinion, a UK GP does not "work hard". Hard work is struggling barefoot down an unlicensed gold mine in central Africa; hard work is a child gleaning rubbish tips in India, sleeping on the pavement; hard work means having a life expectancy of around 32-35, if you're lucky.
We have become so cossetted in this empire of the west that we no longer have empirical knowledge of what hard work truly is, yet we maintain that we do.
UK GPs should raise their hands up and give thanks to Aesculapius for their good fortune.
17/06/13 Mel Anoma
In my opinion, a UK GP does not "work hard". Hard work is struggling barefoot down an unlicensed gold mine in central Africa; hard work is a child gleaning rubbish tips in India, sleeping on the pavement; hard work means having a life expectancy of around 32-35, if you're lucky.
We have become so cossetted in this empire of the west that we no longer have empirical knowledge of what hard work truly is, yet we maintain that we do.
UK GPs should raise their hands up and give thanks to Aesculapius for their good fortune.
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grumpyoldwoman
If you earn £400 per week or £20,000.00 per year you will pay about £6.75 per week or £351.00 per year towards your student loan.
As money expert Martin Lewis says, the word "loan" is rather ill-chosen; it should be looked on as a tax on learning. A large proportion of money "loaned" to students will never be paid back as the recipients will never earn enough to do so.
No student's parents should ever consider paying it off; it's almost like throwing money away!