Resident (Junior) Doctors vote to strike

I agree winterwhite and just hope the government is strong enough to stand up to them.

Footballers, pop singers and other high pay / short career jobs aren't comparable. Nurses, other healthcare professionals, teachers, social workers and others are. Doctors are not more important than any of these and shouldn't think they are. That's what leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

Their starting salaries are higher than the others and their pensions better.

It will release some of my frustration PoliticsNerd.

The BMA has increasingly become more militant over recent years. I know of two doctors who no longer pay membership subscriptions to them because they are not happy with their activist stance. I can’t recall which medical union they then signed up with.

It can lead to others feeling they aren't being paid enough and starts the strike problems we faced recently over again.

To be fair one of my doctors told me that many doctors have to take early retirement because of stress. Having said that, much as I supported the doctors last year and felt that a case could be made for the pay rise they had I’m angry with them this time given that everyone is struggling financially.

pably15

I agree dogsmother , and with the above poster Nanna 8....someone will jump down my throat for this but..footballers earn huge salaries for playing a game,how can anyone compare them to doctors who have done at least 5 years training, to save lives

A footballer has 10-15 years to earn good money if they are lucky.

The minute their game is off the boil or they are injured it’s game over.

Doctors carry on working into their 70’s

It's interesting that older doctors are not supporting this. Listening to Jeremy Vine today a critic was pointing out to a militant young doctor that a) they knew what the pay was like when they started and b) their pensions were far more generous than those in the private sector.
Everybody's pay has fallen behind.

I agree dogsmother , and with the above poster Nanna 8....someone will jump down my throat for this but..footballers earn huge salaries for playing a game,how can anyone compare them to doctors who have done at least 5 years training, to save lives

It is not an easy job but they get paid a lot less than entertainers, footballers and plumbers. Things are crook in Tallarook as they say.

LizzieDrip and Iam64 Wes Streeting has just been speaking at the dispatch box, his figures are just over what I copied from the BMA website.

Iam64

So am I dogsmother. Five years study, with £100,000 debt when the finish. Starting salary of £37,000. Three year computer studies degree, much lower student debt, start salary £60,000 and good working conditions.

Australia offering them a £50,000 welcome handshake, half student debt cleared immediately.

We need to ask what the starting salary for such important, well educated professionals should be. Can we afford not to improve salary and working conditions? About five years ago, Friends in Greece told me five young doctors from their group had gone to Germany for better pay and conditions.

Thank you for that information Iam64. The world has changed and we need to keep ourselves up to date.

From www:/bma.org.uk

In Foundation training you will earn a basic salary of £38,831 to £44,439 (from 1 April 2025). If you are a doctor starting your specialist training in 2025 your basic salary will be £52,656 to £73,992.

This is before overtime, weekends or night duty are added on.

NHS Resolution paid out £2.8 billion funded by the taxpayer for medical negligence. 2023
There’s scope for new thinking about the NHS??

Both necessary jobs but in any case you can’t compare as they are apples and pears.
Resident doctors should realise that they’re being used as pawns by the BMA.

I don't agree that junior doctors are being exploited any more than other public sector workers, notably teachers (whose pay increases had to be met from within schools' budgets).. The country is in a state of crisis. This is not the time to be making extra demands.

Smileless2012

If I see anyone of them on tv saying they don't want to strike, I'll scream .

... and what while that achieve?

A full time customer assistant (on the till) in Morrisons earns approx £18K per year. No thousands of £s of training debt to be paid off.

A doctor’s starting salary is £37K.

No disrespect to Morrisons customer assistants (just using this as an example) …
but compare the responsibility of the two jobs.

There last pay award was 5.4% (comprising of a 4% rise and a £750 consolidated payment) for this financial year along with a 22% increase over the previous two years.

This brings the average full-time basic pay for a resident doctor to approximately £54,300 (source GOV.UK.blogs)

They still do really long shifts here and often don’t even have time to have any meals. My grandson is a junior doctor and I’d say they are way underpaid here but they still earn more than they do in the UK. I don’t agree with strikes by essential workers,though and hope we are never subject to that.

Everyone’s salaries have been playing catch up over the years, why should doctors be any different?
Teachers, firefighters and police included, also nurses.

ronib

Exactly how much do the strikers earn and how much do they want? Perhaps they should consider a change of career to finance?
The last time the junior doctors went on strike, my local hospital was working well without them. It was easier for the senior doctors to get on with the work…..

Here

So am I dogsmother. Five years study, with £100,000 debt when the finish. Starting salary of £37,000. Three year computer studies degree, much lower student debt, start salary £60,000 and good working conditions.

Australia offering them a £50,000 welcome handshake, half student debt cleared immediately.

We need to ask what the starting salary for such important, well educated professionals should be. Can we afford not to improve salary and working conditions? About five years ago, Friends in Greece told me five young doctors from their group had gone to Germany for better pay and conditions.

GrannyGravy13

Resident doctors will walk out at 7am on 25th July and not return until 7am five days later.

They are asking for a 29% pay rise.

The BMA blame the Government for not considering an increase on the offered 5.4% pay rise.

The BMA has been taken over by the militant left wing and has to be confronted head on by the government.

This is not true dogsmother maybe forty years ago when the working hours were extreme. However two now retired doctors thought that was a better system as there is so much to learn in medicine. Doctors now don’t have the same breadth of knowledge and experience it was suggested to me. I don’t know who is right…..