I just came across a recent post on the consultants subreddit discussing the financial side of being a consultant and the associated quality of life, and, to put it mildly, it was quite depressing.

One of the consultants was being praised for living what I would consider a fairly modest lifestyle (absolutely fine if they’re happy with it). They were paying around £1.2k a month in rent and alluded to the fact that their income simply isn’t compatible with owning an expensive house or driving expensive cars.

I completely appreciate that money isn’t everything, and there’s nothing wrong with choosing a modest lifestyle. But I do think financial security and the ability to enjoy a comfortable standard of living are important. Being able to provide a good quality of life for yourself and your family is surely one of the reasons many people pursue a demanding career in the first place.

What makes this even more difficult to reconcile is that most people won’t become consultants until their late 30s or early 40s. It makes me question why so many of us are willing to sacrifice our 20s and 30s, which are arguably the healthiest and most enjoyable years of our lives, for what ultimately seems like a fairly mediocre return on investment.

Hello. ED Reg here. Just wondering if anyone else feels like a crap doctor all of the time? I go to work and I try my best and I always have nice feedback from patients but I always leave work feeling worse about myself.
There isn’t a lot of feedback from seniors and I feel stressed/insecure that I’m not good enough for my role.

I always worry that I’ve missed something or forgotten to do something or write/prescribe something. I work in a very busy ED and I struggle to keep up with seeing patients, documenting, helping juniors, troubleshooting etc and so am usually leaving work late and frazzled.

I’m not sure if this is just me or anyone else feels like this? Or if anyone has any tips to help this feeling?

IMT here hoping for a group 1 speciality where I will be the med reg overnight. Trying to upskill in pleural procedures. Pleural clinic is run by a CNS training another CNS who also wants to practice. Frustrating but accepted that. Found out they're also doing EBUS and pleural biopsies though.....surely this isn't normal? What happens to the resp regs keen to get experience here? Feel like multiple learning opportunities are being lost as well as seeing some complex cases being managed very superficially.

Keen to know if this is a normal experience or if it's like this everywhere now

Anyone relate to feeling done with training, work, everything and just wanting to not leave the house or just not interact with anything medicine or people-related ever again? Give so few fucks that if I saw a car coming at me right now, not sure I would even move out of the way.

I'm safe and all, and not looking for any advice, just wandering if any can relate/has ever felt like this and did it get better?

I recently arranged and delivered a one-hour bedside-teaching session for Year 4 medical students through a specialty department.
At the end of the session, while I was still within earshot, I heard one student make a comment about me along the lines of, “She appears more enthusiastic than she seems.” I cannot remember the exact wording of that sentence. Another student then clearly added, “And the bloody accent.”
I am an IMG and have been working in the NHS for nearly three years. I welcome constructive feedback, including being told professionally if I am unclear or need to slow down. However, this felt like ridicule rather than feedback, and it has significantly affected my confidence.
I did not challenge them at the time because I was shocked. Would it be reasonable to raise this factually with the undergraduate teaching lead or supervising consultant? How would other doctors, particularly IMGs, handle this?

Hi, I'm a an SHO in one of the surgical specialities, frequently we see patients in A&E or SDEC and we keep a record of the patients we see and the plan..etc

Some of those patients usually self discharge or don't show up after we accepted the referral from like a GP or other trusts. The team here recently have been asking us ( SHOs oncall) to call patients and chase them to figure out why did they not show up and to arrange for them to be seen again. I was just wondering if it's the same in other departments and wondering whether that is normal and part of my job as a doctor?

Is there any respect for Medics in general from other Doctors / staff?

For reference I am a medical SHO at present.

Always feels like medicine is the path of least resistance to admissions / In ED just admit to medics.

Medicine often feels like a dumping ground and does not command the respect / authority that surgical counterparts have.

I am not fussed about the respect part myself, as I know I am wanting to do a medical speciality, but wanted to hear peoples thoughts.

Feel like medics just end up saying Yes / are a dumping ground speciality at times.

Would you want to hear from other specialities Surgical, Anasesthetics etc... What do you think of your medical peers?

One doctor dies by suicide every three weeks, according to figures from the British Medical Association.

In 2021, Dr Lalith Wijedoru left his role as consultant paediatrician in emergency medicine, to focus on supporting workforce health and wellbeing, including those working in healthcare.

Given rare access to a wellbeing and recovery retreat, we hear emotional testimonies from the four groups of doctors at greatest risk of suicide - General Practitioners, anaesthetists, surgeons and psychiatrists.

Their stories - of workplace bullying, isolation, fatigue and fear of patient complaints - suggest a system in which doctors are made to feel like machines, rather than human beings.

The concept of 'moral injury' is also a factor - where a doctor is unable to provide the care they wish to give to their patient, due to lack of resources or system breakdown.

Many doctors we hear from say they feel intense internalised pressure to do better - to work harder, and to never complain at worsening conditions. All have suffered from fear of failure, and the lack of the opportunity to decompress after traumatic events in the workplace.

These stories take us to the heart of issues being faced by many or most NHS professionals - and by the 'system' more generally.

For Lalith, this sharing of difficult stories is an important pathway to recovery, even a life-saving intervention.

Lalith is spurred on to talk to those who seek to help and support doctors, from charities like Doctors in Distress, founded by the brother of a doctor who died by suicide, as well as those who are studying the problem of why - and how many - doctors are dying by suicide.

Worryingly, there are gaps in available data, because statistics are drawn from coroners' Preventable Death reports. In England, these are a matter for each individual coroner to decide on, so death by suicide is not uniformly recorded.

Having laid many of these problems bare, what hope is there of realistic change and improvement?

Presenter: Dr Lalith Wijedoru
Producer: Amanda Hargreaves
Sound design: Joel Cox
Location recordings: Jon Calver
Executive producer: Dave Howard
A Bespoken Media Scotland production for BBC Radio 4

I noticed something over the past few months. Whenever a tech medical orientated job goes up on Linkedin, within 1-2 hours it's already maxed out at >100 clicked apply. Voy, Neko, Eucalyptus, and any other company recruiting doctors to work remotely or in person, absolutely clean up.

I myself posted a job a couple of weeks ago and had nearly 700 applicants within 2 days.

Every Dr and his dog is "pivoting to tech", and everyone's a Clinical Safety Officer "terrified" about the implications of AI hallucination.

Looks like we're in the endgame guys.

I was on the BMA website and noticed that to be eligible to run for election, you need to have had an appointment in a recognised training grade within the past four calendar years. This means that if people have never had a training job (like many IMGs), they are, for the purposes of election eligibility, not resident doctors. 

I wonder if any doctors who have never had a training job were elected to UKRDC through ARM this year.

I wonder how many doctors who have never had a training job, or who were last in a training job more than four years ago, are currently standing for election to RDC. 

In 2022, after being elected, the chair of Yorkshire RDC was deemed ineligible as they were discovered to be more than four years out of training. As a consequence of this, they were disqualified from election and the second place co-chairs were elected. 

Are the BMA going to check eligibility of those running for election? Are they going to remove ineligible candidates now? Or after they’re elected? 

As far as I’m aware (I might be wrong about this), Dr Jack Fletcher completed foundation training more than four years ago and hasn’t been in training since. Is he running for election?

I am struggling more as a JCF in ED than I did during both F1 and F2 combined. I am working in the same A&E I did as an F2, and in less than a month I have already made two mistakes.

The first one, I was told that I had sent home a patient before getting all their blood results back. I have no idea how it happened, I'm not even sure that it did happen, I don't know which patient, or even think that I would ever do something like this, or how it could happen, when tests do change management or what I do for each patient. But I was told as part of a feedback session. I thought that was already a bad start, but I have now learnt that I missed a rib fracture on a CXR.

I am so devastated - I feel like an unsafe doctor, when I used to be praised for being a good one. Especially now when I should be more experienced. I don't know if it's the physical tiredness or if it's me the problem. Just needed to get it out of my chest.

As I was sat in a roasting MDT room last week during the last heatwave, idly googling whether it's illegal to make doctors work in 40C rooms (it's not), I found myself with a great thirst for a nice ice cold beer.

Non-alcoholic (0.0%) beers and ciders are getting quite good nowadays, and on paper at least there's nothing to object to. I wouldn't be intoxicated at work.

If feels like I would be breaking some sort of rule or social norm, but it's non-alcoholic, so surely no worse than bringing along a diet coke?

Doctors UK, what are your thoughts? Leave the cooler at home, or bring a crate to the next MDT and crack open a few cold ones with the boys?

At what point do you start to somewhat understand anaesthetics? I am a month in and every time I feel like I get a bit of a grasp on things I have a complete meltdown of understanding. Tubes are entirely hit and miss still and the prospect of trying to do one without someone directly over my shoulder is flustering. Have been reading a fair bit outside of work and trying to take in as much as possible but for every one thing I seem to grasp I seem to forget something else I might have learnt last week… 🙃

I know Rome wasn’t built in a day and all but it just seems like I’m not able to grasp it quickly enough for the IAC

I am an IMT trainee and have always wanted to do Oncology, problem is, I genuinely cannot decide for myself if I should pursue clinical vs medical oncology.

The thing that really appeals me for clinical Oncology is the practical side of it (Radiotherapy)

I understand the giant exam hurdle

Similarly, I love the research and clinical trials bit of med Onc, again its partly present in clinical oncology as well.

There are some questions which I have not found an answer yet, so really would appreciate of reddit can help.

1) What is the international scope of both clinical and medical oncology? In Aus/Canada/Middle east-I have heard clinical oncology is not recognized in these countries??

2) I know Clinical Oncology has a huge private market, what about Medical Oncology?

3) What is the situation with consultant job posts in clinical onc?

would appreciate the insight! thankss

As per title, little confused. I’ve asked Becky, but no real response. Keeps saying she thinks it was chosen to divide the union.

DV reps be clear for those of us voting, do you support 5 year UKGP or not? Transparency is key, as you say.

Hi guys- a quick question about 2027 applications to core surgical training:

I’m just going through the 2027 CT1/ST1 training specifications online, and noticed for Core Surgical Training (CST), they don’t have their “point scoring system” anymore for 2027 (I.e.: grade A for 40 cases, grade B for 30 cases, etc.). It appears to be a much more generic specification focused on showing commitment through non-specific “surgical experience”, “quality improvement”, etc..

Please may someone either tell me I’m an idiot who can’t find the right part of the NHS website or let me know if this is true?

Many thanks from a very grateful foundation trainee who is struggling to meet last year’s strict requirements! (Yearssss of medical school online teaching only for the 2026 protocol to specify face-to-face only counts for points!!!)

So, I do not know if this is just me but I need some advice on this... Whenever I do a venepuncture I have the fear to take the tourniquet off because the needle may or may not get out of the patient.

How do you guys remove those non-reusable tourniquets? I must be doing something wrong?

Prediction for what the cut off score for IMT interview will be this year given they have removed 5 points for only applying to IMT now

Just passed my CBT and starting DAS soon - saving up for a Ninja 400 rather than getting a 125 straight away.

Tell me what bike you have! Wondering how practical is it to commute to work? Where do you keep your leathers/helmet?

P.s. med reg bikers hmu xxx

Hi,

can someone who is at my level sign my DOPS?

I need to sign off a cardioversion, which was witnessed by a colleague who is the same as my level (he is ED ST2, I am IMT2) (He is already signed off). Would that create any issues?

Thanks

Just wondering - my pay rate has been different for 3 out of the last 4 months. It's increased, which is great, but I'm in my maternity pay calculation period so just want to check the lower pay rate the previous month is correct. Pay roll were useless when I phoned and didn't know what happened, so wondering what everyone else's pay is doing? Is this just part of the expect pay rises or should I have been getting the higher rate all along?

I'm ST7 resident doctor and hourly rate was £35.47 in April and May, £36.71 in June and July, and then £37.08 in August. Asking the other ST7 in my department, her pay rate has been the same as me (changing in June and August), but the ST4 I asked didn't have changes and just stuck at £32.28 for the two months she shared July and August.

Anyone else noticed this? Thanks :)

Sorry for the long thread.

I have been given the option to come off the medical on-call rota for six months during my final year of training in a medical subspecialty, and I would really appreciate some advice.

The main downside is financial. Coming off the rota would reduce my monthly income by approximately £1,000–£1,200. I am the main breadwinner for my family and have ongoing financial commitments. To make up the difference, I would either need to do around two locum shifts per month or reduce some of our spending, which could affect our already relatively modest family lifestyle. Doing extra locums might mean having one day off in 2 weeks.

On the other hand, coming off the on-call rota would mean working more regular 9-to-5 hours and would provide some physical and mental relief from the long shifts, nights, and weekends.

I would really appreciate hearing others’ experiences and perspectives.

Hello,

I'm a resident doctor hoping to apply to Histopathology this October for next year's take. Just wanted to share a WhatsApp group where people interested can help each other prepare.

https://chat.whatsapp.com/EoXrKEBRp9rGrKyGvA5kK8?s=cl&p=a&mlu=4

Any advice for interview preparation/resources from current trainees would be much appreciated! :)

Starting O&G soon, never had an O&G job unfortunately! Any advice on how to prepare or tips, keen to be as prepared as possible!!

Evening folks

Planning to do f1 in Northern Ireland.

In terms of the banding that takes place (I know it’ll be reduced with an increase in graduate numbers) but does this negate hourly pay? In the republic if you work over your 39 hours you are paid overtime. With banding I appreciate you are automatically paid the OT being done - but if overtime is done over the overtime is this paid hourly or how does it work?

Cheers,

Pending colleague