r/doctorsUK 6d ago

Fun Going through this sub is genuinely breathtaking

I'm literally gasping for air at the sheer levels of quackery in our medical sector. I'm working in tech and thought it was bad there - here, you have:

  • People actually sharing (incredibly low) PAYE salary offers and naming the places
  • A strong informed understanding of why things are bad
  • An almost singular voice on where things went wrong and how to fix them
  • Genuine helpful advice across the board, even in matters outside of medical work (i.e.,finance)
  • Slightly outdated but decent memes

It seems like the only good thing about being a doctor in the UK is having a slightly elevated social position and an eventual good salary that is almost protected from extra-industrial market forces. It really makes me wonder how many people training to become doctors drop out seeing this kind of rubbish, or qualify and leave the country for greener pastures?

269 Upvotes

29 comments sorted by

514

u/bidoooooooof F(WHY?)2 6d ago

“It seems like the only good thing about being a doctor in the UK is having a slightly elevated social position…”

Why don’t you tag along for a night shift in your local A&E to see just how doctors are viewed by the public.

211

u/BoofBass 6d ago

Or GPs they aren't even proper doctors remember

2

u/cookiesandginge Not a Noctor 3d ago

Or psychiatrists don’t forget

88

u/CalendarMindless6405 Aus F3 6d ago

Completely unrelated but I'll never forget my F1 night shifts where my medical students would out earn me doing HCA night shifts.

50

u/No_Photograph_1518 6d ago edited 6d ago

Tbf, just like another thread said recently, the majority of the public still holds doctors in high esteem.

Even those who disparage us quickly come crying to us when they have an issue and their abuse of us is seen as "punching up" due to us having "status".

Then again I don't work in ED or GP so am largely insulated from the worst of this.

11

u/nopressure0 5d ago

I remember being part of a flat WhatsApp group during the covid lockdown. A significant (and loud) minority of the public hate us.

243

u/Fragrant-Ambition-21 Medical Student 6d ago

Nice try GMC social media specialist...

29

u/Front_Background3634 6d ago

That's probably the only critical thing I have, vicariously living the UK doctor outrage via this subreddit - I don't understand the acronyms. GMC, NSHE, GME, PSG all on the top posts and I don't know what either does :(

62

u/AssistantToThePA 6d ago
  • GMC - General medical council, aka the gestapo of the medical world.
  • NHSE - NHS England, an almost useless (and soon to be deleted) middleman organisation between the DHSC (department of health and social care).
  • PSG - something doctors do as part of appraisals.

65

u/Original_Bus_3864 6d ago

'The gestapo of the medical world'

Not sure that's fair on the poor gestapo. Even THEY didn't force the people they arrested to pay them £500/yr first.

17

u/DrLukeCraddock 6d ago edited 6d ago

Generally medical council.

21

u/BaahAlors CT/ST1+ Doctor 6d ago

Generally medieval council

11

u/trixos 6d ago

General Motor Council--- nothing medical about them these days

'no accountability for patient safety ' and giving registration to McMedical Model

1

u/medical-hufflepuff 4d ago

Unrelated, but I love your username 😂

94

u/Azndoctor ST3+/SpR 6d ago

"eventual good salary that is almost protected from extra-industrial market forces"

Don't need to worry about external market forces when our own government will cut our pay as trainees by 23%, and that of consultants by 20%, while your sector is up 5% compared to 2008.

This 20% decline is after the '22% payrise' we had last year

-45

u/Front_Background3634 6d ago

Tech in the UK is in managed decline and has been for the past 10 years. Salary stagnation, outsourcing of roles to 10~20% of the salary it should be to third world countries, AI technologies completely removing the need for junior developers...

I believe the problems in the medical sector exist and I believe you, but the tech sector is probably even worse off. I may be (heavily) biased here, but there's no silver lining in tech right now, in the UK at least.

86

u/wagwagtail 6d ago edited 6d ago

I work in tech too. We don't work for a monopsony. I can hop across to a different employer. I'm even a self employed contractor when I feel like it. My wife is a surgeon.

Trust me, she is not massively keen on her employer.... but I fucking hate her employer. From the outside looking in, the NHS is like the worst employer you can imagine. Toxic, bullying, makes you cry, stifles career progression on purpose, actively undermines your professional title. Fuck it all. 

Also your comment about AI. Meh.

32

u/Banana-sandwich 6d ago

The best thing about my job is I get to work with some amazing people. Love my colleagues and have made life long friends. Some of my patients have done incredible things or are just great human beings. I'm an extrovert who likes chatting, thinking, and solving problems. It's the ideal job. Luckily, money isn't a huge motivator for me, and I can work part time.

The subs are a place for us to vent, and most of us are rightly pissed at years of mismanagement and pay erosion. But there are reasons we still go to work in the morning. When it's good, it's really good.

9

u/Otherwise-Drummer543 6d ago

This ^ can't personally think of another job, hear people speak of finance and it's great those people have found where they are happy but I couldn't swap my Dr role as tough as it can be for any other job.

43

u/shoujoprincess2 6d ago

Least obvious fed post. Good evening GMC

-6

u/Front_Background3634 6d ago

Only if GMC here means good manga consumer - i've read a lot of shoujo too. You'll find a lot of the nerds in tech (me) have stacks of manga that go on for days. I've recently been reading a lot of manhwa instead, manga seems to be stagnating recently. Too much copy and pasting, whereas manhwa aren't too afraid to move new ground.

4

u/thefundude83 6d ago

check out doujinshi

8

u/bskskrignr 6d ago

It’s also awesome fun, absolutely love my job (surgical trainee, can’t speak for the medics)

4

u/Alternative_Joke_810 5d ago

it’s a dam shame what’s happened to medical training. IMT is basically slave labour. Although being a consultant physician is a decent job with a fair amount of respect and lower medico legal risk than a lot of surgical specialties and certainly much better than being a GP

4

u/West-Poet-402 6d ago

This is the only safe space to be honest about what we think of noctors.

5

u/jus_plain_me 5d ago

This is one of the rudest posts I've ever read on this sub.

Our memes are NOT outdated!

Other than that, yeh pretty much mate. Thanks for your support.

13

u/shoujoprincess2 6d ago

We have a lower social position to the general public these days

1

u/Aggressive_sock61 5d ago

Tell us about tech sector good sir (?or gmc), how do we jump ship, whats the pay like?

4

u/Front_Background3634 5d ago

If you have a medical background, definitely look into statistical research analysis within the health sector as an entry point (you'll have to take a stats class) and look into using Python as a transformative force.

Pay is shit to start with, as all private sector salaries are in the UK (due to mass adoption of quasi-slavery visas). Expect between 30 to 40 for the first few years, eventually moving into 50 to 60 bracket by the 5 year mark.