Emergency doctors paid £2000 per day

I was the same, but, while I was only payed £1000 a year, my house at that time cost £3800.
I think that is a better comparison

As a Junior Doctor, OH was paid £1000 too ....

.... a year- in 1970, and working up to 140 hours a week- normally 125!

As a GP he worked 1 in 3 nights, and 1 in 3 week-ends (I did too ... of course, stuck at home answering the phone) and up several times a night.

My heart breaks for the NHS- which used to be the best health system in the world.

There's a catch 22 in there somewhere, the fewer staff they can attract, the longer the working hours will be for the rest, but there are some mixed messages when it comes to attracting staff, though.

In the case of nurses, the BBC recently reported that there are 200,000 applicants for just 20,000 vacancies, so there's not much sign of nurses being overworked and underpaid there.

On the other hand, they're reportedly having to pay bribes to get GPs to go and work in Essex, but I don't know whether that's a reflection on Essex in general, or the standard of Essex surgeries in particular. Perhaps there's a catch 22 there as well, if Essex can't attract the best doctors, that will be reflected in the performance of the surgeries.

I recall when we used to grumble about morale/pay/conditions etc. at work, the management response was always the same: our staff turnover rates are no worse than anyone elses. The turnover rates for both doctors and nurses are about 1% per month, which is well below the average of 15% per year, and follows the trend of lower than average turnover rates for the public sector in general.

The use of locums has become a bit of a money-making game. This happens in Social Services where several people I know "retired" and then were re-employed in their previous jobs as agency staff so that they could get twice or more the salary. Even the loss of pension still made it worth while.