The consultants are going on strike ?
My heart bleeds for them NOT .
They are on huge salaries and many don’t work full time for the NHS z they make more money from their private work .
I see your point but the UK faces a medical profession shortage and quite a few doctors are heading off to get better pay and better working conditions in other countries. New Zealand and Australia are particularly attractive. So if we want to avoid more problems in the NHS then the reality is that we may have to pay more.
Another issue will be how a consultant pay compares to other top professions. A consultant on a mix of NHS and private work might get, I’m guessing, 200-300k a year. Frankly this is dismal compared to senior lawyers, accountants or board directors. These guys are on 500k upwards. So young talented students looking at their options might well be tempted away from medicine and into more lucrative careers. Again causing problems for the NHS.
If all they want is money they not fit to be doctors anyway .
You need to have a certain commitment and dedication to the job ,
Not all lawyers ext get mega salaries , and there is no saying a good doctor would be a good lawyer .
My point is that a consultant is a specialist with many years of education and training leading to tremendous expertise in a field that should be highly valued. The lawyer or accountant with something similar years of experience and true expertise will be earning x5 or x10 that of a consultant. You can’t cut the earnings in those professions so do we just tell senior specialist doctors to stop moaning and take satisfaction from their work? That seems very patronising.
Hi
The only people who suffer with all these strikes are us, the public.
NHS Salaries have been cut ever since the Conservatives took power over a decade ago.
There is a very simple way to stop this and that is for NHS workers getting the same pay rises as MPs, after all, both NHS Workers and MPs are public servants.
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How many poor consultants do you know ?
It’s doesn’t matter what some lawyers or anyone else earns they chose to be doctors and consultants are paid well by anyone’s standards.
Doctors have to maintain some standards and the first is to care for the people who they treat .
Going on strike when people are depending on them is morally unethical .
The BMA wants consultants to
have a pay rise of 35 % to allow for inflation this will be paid for by increased taxation . Inflation affects workers across the board many much less well paid than consultants so does tax .So everyone should be taxed more so that consultants don’t feel the pinch ?
Not a good move .
But the point is that they are not so well paid compared to their experienced professional peer group. So good pay by many people’s standards but poor pay compared to similar people. That’s the comparison that matters.
And if the NHS does not pay them then they can hardly retrain as a lawyer. So their choice is either leave the UK or focus more on private work - both of which mean the NHS losing them. Given that this is the first strike by consultants in many, many years, and given that the 13 years of tory government has never been generous with public sector pay rises, then this surely shows that the consultants have not taken the decision to strike lightly. Or do you have a suggestion of a better way to force the government to act?
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So what?
They chose to be doctors .
A respected and well paid profession .
We expect lawyers to be money grubbing barswards and we hate them for it .
Doctors we hold to a different standard
They have been offered a 6 % pay rise which on their salaries of £120 k + is no small amount .
The country is on its knees people can’t even get to see a doctor it’s about time the consultants had some social conscience instead of greed .
Doctors on the continent earn much lower salaries and they may push off to Australia but there they may find they have to work harder !
There is a limit to expertise, training and education, as such, there should be a limit to earning potential,