Do you think doctors need a pay increase?

Health & Diet Health & Diet: Chat / Discussions
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13

No! Sorry but they need to learn budgeting like the rest of us.

Haven’t had a GP since 2012. There was an appointment for our son, we waited 4 hours and then it was cancelled and I was told to re-book another appointment.

I’d already got heat for not returning son to school, do I wasn’t having a great day… All I said was that I was disappointed with this situation. Due to this, fortnight later, I received my card (not kids or hubby’s) telling me that I had to find another GP.

Ever since I’ve tried and nothing happens.

So, if they don’t provide services to anyone with lifelong health problems… Well!!! Underserved!

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14

I think the thing is with junior doctors is that they are quite underpaid and overworked at the beginning of their career but as they advance they can expect excellent salaries, well above the average persons

While others in healthcare, nurses, healthcare assistants, porters, ambulance drivers don’t really have the same opportunities. I know there are opportunities for advancement in those careers, but not on the same scale and it happens for less of them proportionately than for junior doctors

So, while I think they should get a pay rise, I certainly don’t think it should be 39% or anything like it

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15

Perhaps there is an opening for Medical Clerks then.

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16

There are not many professions that take a minimum of seven or eight years of training before you get a salary.

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17

We, too, have a shortage of doctors due to a limited number of places (numerus clausus), the strong selection procedure, the long training (13 years) which is why the salaries are justified:
£54,000-67,000 as entry-level salary
£87,000 as a medical specialist usually when they are in their mid-thirties
up to £133,000 as a consultant
£330,000 and more as a senior consultant . Registered doctors in a private practice may earn more, radiologists often more than one million.

Like other professional groups they go where working conditions are better. In our case it’s Switzerland where they earn more and working hours are shorter while a lot of doctors from Eastern Europe and elsewhere come here and fill the gaps to some extent. Others decide to work in the pharmaceutical industry for the same reason.

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18

The other thing to bear in mind when looking at the NHS doctors pay scales is that they will most likely have had to pay their own way through all those years of study to learn and train to be a doctor and will have racked up a lot of debt, including a hefty total of student Loans, before they even get to be Junior Doctors.

The average amount of debt a UK medical student will leave university with is between £50,000 and £90,000. This figure depends on how long their degree was (typically 4-6 years), whether they studied in London or not and whether they were studying medicine as an undergraduate or a postgraduate.

I realise they don’t have to start repayments until their salary reaches a certain threshold but this is debt they will have to repay from their salary at some point.

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19

I agree with you @Boot . Which brings me to a lifelong fight and opinion that Education, as important as it is in our lives, should be available and free to all who wants to learn.

Personally, I had friends in the 80s which were going through University studies, while I had begun as a Public Servant in the government. I was appalled to discover that many, many is the emphasis here, future doctors including the entire medical fields, where their official degrees were actually bought and paid for by rich oarents.

These situations made me weary of the capabilities of these junior newly certified (not really responsible) doctors.

Put it that way, I was incredibly picky when it came time to be a doctor in any given surgeries.

Worst! Were the kids who went into these professions just for the benefits of acquiring the rights to prescribed what-have-you.

Granted, all this was experienced in the 1980s and some were found guilty and removed from medical membership and prevented from ever working. It was very worrisome.

At the end of the day, free education would help tremendously. Secondly, there is help with debts, especially in Scotland. Thirdly, having a good tight budget and living within your means for a few years, until salariés catch up, makes a huge difference.

One job I had at government in the 1980s paid around £12,000 a year. Nowadays, the same job receives a salary of £53,000 … An incredibly jump in just a short 30 years.

Boy they were glad of that pay raise. However, everything else went up as well. I hear from acquaintances back there, whom are now facing homelessness and atrocious debts. It’s such a sad mess, isn’t it?

Last job offer with over 20 years of experience, I was offered £2.50 an hour. Aye right! LOL…

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20

Fine in principle, but how would you fund all those vast and wide spread seats of learning? Everything in this life has a cost and those costs have to be found somewhere.

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21

It’s not classed as a debt Boot, but a graduate contribution system - and the amount they repay per year is very low:

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22

I think rather than getting a pay rise, they should not be subject to tuition fees and incurring massive debts to study. Giving them a 30% pay rise is most likely the cheaper option.

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23

It’s about time reverse capitalism was applied, lets scale everything down.

24

I would agree with that proposal if all those benefiting agree to sign up to a minimum of 7 year’s service before moving out of the NHS.

25

yes of course there should be some loyalty or they have to pay the fees. I also think that newly qualified doctors who are working now should have a fees amnesty. That would be a better solution than giving everyone a 30% raise. I’m sure it would encourage more applicants to medical school. Key specialised professions should not have to pay through the nose for degrees at this time of labour shortages.

26

Junior doctors get millions of £££ worth of free training. They should pay to back over their career while working part time in the private sector, not seeing patients and wasting tax payers money.

If they want to threaten us to go and work in Australia under “better conditions” then fine but don’t get upset when we change the NHS to be like the Australian system. As usual they want it both ways - the NHS which is crap wages, crap hours, and over worked, under funded is strangely the “envy of the world” and a shrine to patient healthcare and the same time.

Scrap it.

Its crap.

27

I do believe it. My friend’s daughter is a consultant anaesthetist and she is always saying how well off she is. Her husband has never had to work as they have 3 children so he was more than happy to be house husband.

Another friend has twin daughters, both doctors. One as a GP and the other a hospital consultant. They both have children, huge houses in posh areas and one has a Holiday home in France, the other in this country. She showed me photos and it’s like a mini stately home …… and that’s just the second home!

28

Do they deserve 30%.
In a word … No.

They’re investing in a profession with longterm accumalative rewards. By the time they’re in their 40s and 50s they’re on lucrative salaries … by the time they are late 50’s and doubtless jobbing in private practice around their NHS committments ( to retain perks such as generous pensions) … they are hauling in the real big money.

A demand for a 30% rise will see an increase of 20k a year, or about £400 a week for the average doctor … that’s a pretty soul destroying amount for everyone else to comprehend when they have to struggle along and make tough decisions on affordability and doing without.

29

It’s all cobblers of course.

30

please explain

31

most of not everyone else are not making life or death decisions though. Drs are under a great deal of stress because most often the buck stops with them. They should be rewarded, I just don’t think it’s affordable in the current financial climate. We have so many values back to front. Management consultants on a gravy train are paid a fortune, no doubt also to determine how to approach the junior doctor situation.

32

Working in the NHS they get trained for free - they do not have to pay for it. That training is worth millions.