Junior Doctors Strikes

Minstadave · 2026-03-25T17:47:27+0000

Off we go again.

7th to 13th April

tamzzy · 2026-03-25T18:12:24+0000

JDs want a long easter break...when are they actually going to do some work!?

Whitewater · 2026-03-25T19:21:08+0000

They seem to be trying their best to demonstrate that they’re not essential.

tamzzy · 2026-03-25T19:25:17+0000

i'm supporting the strikes. more money for me. ka ching!

Minstadave · 2026-03-25T19:32:19+0000

Whitewater said:
They seems to be trying their best to demonstrate that they’re not essential.

They're not essential provided you dont mind paying hundreds of millions each strike to cover their work.

tamzzy · 2026-03-25T19:51:56+0000

Minstadave said:
They're not essential provided you dont mind paying hundreds of millions each strike to cover their work.

I don't mind :cry:

(I'm guessing you don't either)

mattyfez · 2026-03-25T20:24:52+0000

Junior doctors pay seems to be about 40-60k, which is a decent wage If you're only doing a 37.5hr standard week.

I suspect a lot of them do more hours than that though without extra pay? so the wages start to look pretty crap, pretty fast.

NHS Doctor Salary & Pay 2026/27 | Complete Guide

FY1 doctor salary £36,616, junior doctor pay £36,616-£61,825, GP salary £73,113-£114,743. Complete NHS medical doctor salaries for 2026/27.

www.nhspayband.uk

NVP · 2026-03-25T20:29:27+0000

mattyfez said:
I suspect a lot of them do more hours than that though without extra pay? so the wages start to look pretty crap, pretty fast.

mattyfez · 2026-03-25T20:41:51+0000

Hey I'm not saying all doctors are competent, I've met several I wouldn't trust to make a cup of tea, never mind work in health care.

But that's a different argument, so what's the point in calling me a noob?

NVP · 2026-03-25T20:47:23+0000

Hahaha no, no my reply was at them working extra without pay. But now I can "lol noob" you too

SamyBoy13 · 2026-03-25T20:58:32+0000

Well at least the ED will run efficiently, more senior Doctors and Consultants pick up the slack and everything seems to run somoother. Nonetheless I dont think this will achieve anything. The cost of living and world conflict does not help and everyone gets a paycut pretty much every year... Sad times

fez · 2026-03-26T08:12:32+0000

mattyfez said:
I suspect a lot of them do more hours than that though without extra pay? so the wages start to look pretty crap, pretty fast.

No, they get paid for the time they do. They also get a very very good pension.

tamzzy · 2026-03-26T08:53:30+0000

fez said:
No, they get paid for the time they do. They also get a very very good pension.

As someone who has done it. That's not quite true.
Overtime is unpaid. Yes you can "claim" it back through time off in-lieu or in back payment but in reality this is pretty difficult as staffing is already stretched and I've never heard of any trust authorising the back payment. (I'm sure there are some trusts that will...but I've not heard of any).

Also to add that the pensions are now career-average earnings and not final salary. So whilst it's still pretty good by benchmarking against private pension standards...it's by no means "gold plated".
The pension is part of the remuneration package as the pay is pretty crap by professional benchmarks.

Personally I'm negotiating a move away from the UK pretty soon to north America.
(One less immigrant and good riddance perhaps? :cry:

)
One week of work there is equivalent to a month's pay here

NVP · 2026-03-26T08:56:01+0000

Paging ICE

My sister always talks about it being better in Canada or Oz or what not, but surely all these western outfits are heading the same way? How are the opportunities in Asia?

fez · 2026-03-26T09:01:54+0000

tamzzy said:
As someone who has done it. That's not quite true.
Overtime is unpaid. Yes you can "claim" it back through time off in-lieu or in back payment but in reality this is pretty difficult as staffing is already stretched and I've never heard of any trust authorising the back payment. (I'm sure there are some trusts that will...but I've not heard of any).

My partner works in the NHS and from what she says, the doctors generally don't do unpaid overtime and when needed they are scheduled to do the overtime and its paid.

tamzzy said:
The pension is part of the remuneration package as the pay is pretty crap by professional benchmarks.

Which is fine, but you can't ignore that when it comes to discussing pay packages. Telling people that you only get paid X when the reality is that there are some very good perks of working as a doctor for the NHS outside of the pure salary.

tamzzy said:
Personally I'm negotiating a move away from the UK pretty soon to north America.
(One less immigrant and good riddance perhaps? )
One week of work there is equivalent to a month's pay here

You going to Canada? I didn't think the US would take UK doctors without significant retraining but I honestly know very little about it.

But yes, the US pays their doctors a huge amount because they have had to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to be trained and the healthcare system over there cares far more about money than it does caring for people. Personally I find the whole thing somewhat unsavoury but hey ho.

tamzzy · 2026-03-26T09:04:32+0000

NVP said:
Paging ICE

I'll just wear my MAGA cap

NVP said:
My sister always talks about it being better in Canada or Oz or what not, but surely all these western outfits are heading the same way?

A few of my friends are in Oz, they love it there. Better pay and better working conditions.
Half of them have returned to the UK, the other half have settled in Oz and not planning to return (only for holidays in this third world country trying to masquerade as a first)

NVP said:
How are the opportunities in Asia?

Malaysia is crap unless you are a private doctor
Singapore...well I wouldn't want to work there
It's long hours and the pay per hour isn't even that great
(declaration of interest: I'm Singaporean :cry:

)
Middle east is where the money is at, but you're also looking to put in the hours...but at least the pay is good.

Best quality of life is Oz or north America.
When I move I'm dropping my average working hours to 25 hours a week.

tamzzy · 2026-03-26T09:05:56+0000

fez said:
My partner works in the NHS and from what she says, the doctors generally don't do unpaid overtime and when needed they are scheduled to do the overtime and its paid.

You are correct...but only for consultants. Not JDs.

fez said:
You going to Canada?

Yep

fez said:
Telling people that you only get paid X when the reality is that there are some very good perks of working as a doctor for the NHS outside of the pure salary.

TBF the pension is the only perk I can think of. And it isn't even that great of a perk when my total lifetime income can easily exceed that elsewhere.

And before someone tells me to go elsewhere...I already am :cry:

sidimmu · 2026-03-26T09:15:40+0000

tamzzy said:
You are correct...but only for consultants. Not JDs.

Well yeah, actual qualified doctors dont have a problem.
JD's dont want to put in the extra work to get to that level without a bit of sacrifice? Entitled.

tamzzy · 2026-03-26T09:20:58+0000

sidimmu said:
JD's dont want to put in the extra work to get to that level without a bit of sacrifice? Entitled.

Back in the day, on average I was putting in an extra 8-10 hours of extra time a week, unpaid

That's an extra day of work per week the trust was getting for free!

When there used to be hours-monitoring, there was a few times we had to re-do it two or three times. Official stance was that there was "not enough submissions" but I'm pretty sure that they looked at the data and knew the hours was either illegal or they would have to increase our pay banding :cry: