Doctors' Job in the FUTURE....

hah doctors get paid enough already really (both my parents are )

they dont, when u consider their long working hours and their degree courses' length!

they work pretty much the same as someone working nine to five, just in shifts. yes it is stressful but c'mon do you really think they deserve more than 40-60 grand?

YEs. THey have constant training and a 5 year degree course.
COmpare them with lawyers and accountants..... Don't forget, in most other countries, the NHS does not exist e.g. the USA....

So the NHS gives them job security. It is only a job and consultants can be paid 80k, which is a lot.

they work pretty much the same as someone working nine to five, just in shifts.

Only a job?! Tell that to the millions of people who's lives have been saved by the medical profession!!!

Policemen and firemen save lives, but that is there job. Doctors do a very important job, but you cannot blow it out of all proportion. It is just a profession.

Hi!
I was wondering, are junior docs and consultants' job going to get a bit better in the future?
I have read about stuff like junior doctors' hours being limited to 48 hours a week and consultants to 40 hours by 2010, when I graduate, and consultants getting pay raises etc. but then I get dismayed when I see folks like the Labour and Conservative parties mention that they feel doctors are paid too much and should work even more hours [conservatives don't like the working time directive ] just to satisfy waiting lists. I know this seems really selfish....

Anyhow, I was wondering, how likely are the working conditions, namely, pay [I'm not going in medicine solely for the pay, but when you consider the longer hours and longer training than other careers / vocations, I'd like to feel I'm compensated for having to work far longer hours] and the hours to improve in the next 5 or so years?

My one drawback to becoming a doctor is the NHS in this country. The idea of working for a public service, answerable to patients and votes, with mostly a monopoly over you during the junior doctor years is the only thing that is rather turning me off medicine, which is something I dread [not medicine, the idea of working for the NHS, cos it's a monopoly!] NHS = Great for my socialist beliefs etc., bad for being the main employer of doctors tho.

Ooops, gone on a bit of a ramble. Anyhow, how likely are the hours to decrease [regardless of the working time directive... it's the conservatives and labour that scare me cos they are in control of the nhs] and the conditions to improve by 2010. And would there be a corresponding decrease in pay as hours decrease? [Cos I'd have to make up for an extra two years of uni debt etc. etc....]

Oh and anyone know what % of docs also do private work as consultants?
Roughly, like is it like 5% or something lowish or something common like 50% etc.....


Thanks for ANY information. [I have read the EU working time directive, the labour and conservative websites, and the NHS plan before coming here tho! Cheers... ]

It is a profession, but it is not just a profession.

Policemen and firemen dont have 6 year degrees to complete followed by several more years training, which is exactly why doctors are worth the money they get paid.

x-Laura-x

They are worth the money they are paid, but not more. And it is debatable whether they need that much training, they just get it.

They are worth the money they are paid, but not more. And it is debatable whether they need that much training, they just get it.