Junior Doctors Contract

[jeff oakley]

Hi all,

 

You may have read about the proposed changes to the Junior Dr's contract. The problem is that the NHS has to save £30billion to try to balance the books caused by a growing population, increased expectations, rising cost of drugs, an aging population and a willingness to give free health care to anyone who gets here.

Instead of dealing with the corruption, the waste and the abuse Jeremy Hunt has decided to force a contract change on Junior Dr's. This change will lead to a cut in salary of up to 30% as he has reclassified what is unsocial hours. He claims that this will have no affect on salary but he is lying.

My daughter is a Junior Dr, which is anyone up to consultant. She works in Leamington and her base salary is £23000 plus banding for unsocial hours which means she get £28000 after 5 years at med school. This is less than a newly qualified Tube driver and can you imaging Aslef reacting to a cut of 30%?

Out of that she has to pay her professional fees, insurance and to park everyday at the hospitals she works in. We restrict hours lorry drivers can work in any set period, yet this week she has worked 9-6 Monday to Thursday and followed this with 3 shifts starting 8.00am to 8.00pm with an extra 1/2 at each end for handover. This is followed by a 7.00am start on Monday. She works nights which are all 12 hours as do many other staff in the NHS which in spite of claims is open 24hours. 

Hunt has driven Dr's to ballot for a strike and has created an exodus of Dr's who are leaving to work in America, Canada, New Zealand and Australia and interestingly these changes only at the moment apply to England as Wales and Scotland are seperate and see this as an opportunity to fill their vacancies.

If we are not careful we will have less Dr's, less quality Dr's as they are stealing Doctors from Africa, India and Aisia to fill gaps. And make no mistake if the get this through they will come for Nurses, Firemen and Police next.

I don't want this to descend into an argumentative thread, but if you feel like I do that we are at a tipping point with the NHS were Hunt is willing to destroy the quality of care we have at present by treating Dr's so badly, then please put your name to the petition below.

If you feel you cannot thanks for reading this far.

 

 

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/108782Sent

[Sand Dancer]

Jeff

I totally concur. My daughter is currently half way through her 5 year medical degree, prior to that she completed a 3 year medical science degree. That will mean she will have to study for 8 years before she can earn her £23k minus 30% - and pay back her tuition fees.

There are many students in exactly the same position.

Petition signed

Dave

[TAFKARM]

100% agree with Jeffs comments.

[djm]

Totally agree, petition signed, they targeting the wrong people!

[Captain Colonial]

PLEASE - don't anyone take this the wrong way, I'm apolitical and not Tory bashing.  The fact that we charge people to go to university for professions such as becoming doctors or nurses is insane when you could just as easily slap a contract on them that charges them on a sliding scale if they emigrate after qualifying.  It's nuts that we raise money by charging for parking at hospitals, taxing not only the patients and their families but people working there.  It's crazy that getting treatment depends on where in the country you live and if they can afford it.

 

Do I have the answers?  No.  But I do know that paying junior doctors who work long hours less than half what we pay tube drivers who work a 36-hour week is barking mad.

 

It was inevitable once the (fill in political party here, they're all the same) got a working majority in an election that they'd start by breaking election promises and screwing anyone they could to help their own friends in the hope we'll forget all their behaviours by the time the next election rolls around.  Screw the junior doctors, the poor who need tax credits, the disabled who rely on others to survive, the disadvantaged, we're all right, Jack.  Let's not concentrate on important matters, let's make sure the Scots can't stop us from going fox hunting again because that's the most important issue to us.  Don't worry about companies like Vodafone owing us eight billion pounds in taxes, let's balance the books by cutting back on those who can't stop us from doing so.  The whole thing stinks and always has.

 

For the first time in my voting life, and I always vote, I'm going to deliberately spoil my ballot paper at the next election by writing "No candidate or party worthy of my support available" on it.  We are in an appalling political state right now.  I think voting should be compulsory, but there should be an abstention option on the ballot.  When abstentions or spoiled ballot papers outnumber votes received, maybe we'll get our voice back.

 

Sorry, rant over.  Off to sign petition.

[Diggsy]

Signed.

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

Signed earlier but can't find away to compose a longer reply that won't see me with warning points. 

[stephenh]

Are they really going to get a 30% pay cut? £23k less 30% is £16,100!!!

[scubajess]

Signed and totally agree with all the comments so far

[jeff oakley]

Are they really going to get a 30% pay cut? £23k less 30% is £16,100!!!

It is a very complicated system Stephen. The base salary is supplemented with bandings which are up to 50% of the salary depending upon the area they work in. So A&E for example is the highest as their hours are weighted when needed. So Saturday evening when it is like a war zone with drunks you need more in.

Where as, say mental health, is more clinic based 9-5 with odd night cover the banding may well be say 20%. By changing the unsocial element, they can cut a huge chunk out of the total package paid, not the base salary.

It is this complication which Hunt is relying upon to muddy the waters and making out the Dr's are greedy not wanting to work 24hours. As I said I see things one way and the 30% cut is the worst case scenario.

[dombanks]

Are they really going to get a 30% pay cut? £23k less 30% is £16,100!!!

this is a very difficult thing to answer and i have stayed very much away from it as i know a fair few doctors and all i see is none of them have a poor salary. at the traditional junior level of house officer f1/f2 its not great but then again a BMS scientist has a similar level of training etc and they get paid less than that.

 

I know many health carer professionals at all levels from nurses/ health care assistants/lab staff/f1 and f2 doctors/docs on training schemes to be registrars/registrars and consultants

it looks to me like the junior doctors are just having their working hours etc pulled into line with the rest of the NHS. Ill give one example. some one who works in mental health care they have 4yr degree, masters and significant training. they had their hours changes ages back (changed as in the banding that qualifies as unsociable) . he used to get a decent overtime payment for his "on call" work which is now mandatory in his contract. this changed and now for his 12hr out of hour shifts he get £25 extra.

 

some of what the junior drs are having done is this rebanding other is crap stuff.

the working conditions and terms for ALL of the NHS needs addressing.

 

like i said maybe i just knew the well paid doctors. my ex when i met her was 2 yrs out of F2 and on a training scheme for A&E she was on at least 50k her base was something like 35K + the banding mentioned above

[bigals]

signed,

[Rhett Turner - Black Country AO]

Signed,

 

Sisters and Brother in Law or both Doctors. They worked hard to get where they are and the hours they had to put in while early in their career were frightening, they would not let a driver put in those hours because it's dangerous but it's OK to let a Doctor, it's not as it they are dealing with life ending/changing decisions.

My Daughter has just qualified as a Nurse and they are under threat to have their contracts altered next.

[Paul Hurdsfield - Joint Manchester AO]

Signed

[wilsonch]

Does the NHS not comply to the European working time directive? I work for.a food company I. E. The private sector. Now we have opted out of the 48hour average rule BUT we MUST have 11 hours off between shifts. We are not allowed to work both days of a week end unless you have the ones before and after off. How does the NHS get away with it?

On another note. Another previous company changed my 6am start to 7.30 just because 7.30 is not considered unsociable hours hence no payment. The private sector already does all these sneaky tricks....not that it's right.