Are resident doctors right to strike over pay? | Doctors
I fully support the resident doctors’ strike (Why NHS doctors’ strikes look set to continue, October 14). I am a retired consultant anesthetist who worked in the NHS for 40 years. Throughout my career, I felt like I was totally underpaid for my work.
As a young doctor in the 1970s and until my appointment as a consultant in 1991, I was paid a pittance for excessive and dangerous hours of work – often 80 to 100 hours a week. Accommodation and meals were minimal. Overtime was paid at a much lower rate.
Historically, various governments have failed to recognize our commitment to patients. We are essentially cheap labor. I feel that we have been exploited for decades, and it is time that these historical abuses are recognized. A proper and up-to-date salary increase would be a reward of sorts.
Good will and a true vocation allowed us to continue. Some consequences will never be known or recognized by the public or the various governments in power. We lost a lot of good people due to high pressure and stress during this time. This won’t help me now, but I fully support resident doctors.
After 40 years as a doctor and then as a senior consultant, my final year salary, before tax, was just over £101,000. A bit pathetic, don’t you think? And I haven’t had much private practice – so little that it didn’t justify the time, effort and confidence. I can say without reservation that my goal was to improve the lives of all my patients, every day. Most of the time, I think so.
Elizabeth Taylor
Norton, South Yorkshire
As an NHS pediatric consultant, I would like to state that I am not a member of the British Medical Association and would not consider going on strike. I believe I have an extremely well-paying job with a good work-life balance, and I am extremely grateful to be able to do the work that I do. Unfortunately, no matter how many of us resign from the BMA, no alternative voices seem to be heard.
Dr Natasha de Vere
Wakefield, West Yorkshire
