Ian

Consultant Anaesthetist. Med Education, Training and e-Portfolio. Swimming Official. Tweets in a personal capacity.

[The BMA @TheBMA]

If your finances are a barrier to taking part in the upcoming resident doctor strikes, then support is available.

The BMA Strike Fund exists to help those who may otherwise struggle to strike, ensuring more of us can take part.

If you know a colleague who might be in this situation, encourage them to apply here: https://t.co/K7tpASeGgn

[The BMA @TheBMA]

Consultants and SAS doctors in England, did you spot our ballot in the latest edition of the BMJ?

Remember to post your ballot back as soon as possible.

[Milo Kostusiak @MiloKostusiak]

There is probably going to be another update next week "talks are progressing well" only to be given a crap offer in 4 weeks time, saying "we almost had a deal, but the gov reduced the overall pay package at the very last minute and this is the final offer" @BMAResidents

[Sandip Patel @SandipP61970438]

@trentconsultant Vote YES to preserve the value of our pensions

Vote YES to restore our lost pay

Vote YES to ensure we are given time to improve services

Vote YES to ensure we are given time to train our future consultants

[Mike Henley 🤨 @trentconsultant]

Be like Sandip!

[Mike Henley 🤨 @trentconsultant]

Have you posted your ballot yet? Wander down to the postbox now!

[Resident Doctors @BMAResidents]

Negotiations update for resident doctors in England

[Becky Lavelle @DrBeckyl]

Consultants and SAS doctors deserve better!

Return those orange envelopes 🟧

@BMA_Consultants
@BMA_SAS

[Mike Henley 🤨 @trentconsultant]

Get that vote in the post. Fully contractual SPA is the lifebelt you need so you can spend time improving your service rather than drowning. #DemandBetterVoteYes

[Mike Henley 🤨 @trentconsultant]

Get it in the post! A proper contractual number of SPA, shorter PA length (3.5 hours), better recognition of OOH & overnight interruptions, MYPD, Welsh top pay point as a down payment, access to pension you’ve paid for without employer ‘permission’ and more, #DemandBetterVoteYes

[Mike Henley 🤨 @trentconsultant]

Vote now, vote yes.

[Mike Henley 🤨 @trentconsultant]

Burnout!

Want a more sustainable job, more professional time, the most stressful out of hours work properly recognised, control over the length of your working week? This you? Vote in the consultant and SAS ballot and vote yes!

[Dr Gordon Caldwell @doctorcaldwell]

@irrespolong @jotalbotbowen @PhilSmithIsBack @medicalmodelbri @doctor_oxford I was offered a Physicians' Associate for my team to 'See & Treat patients in A&E' so my Doctors could get on with Discharge Summaries! I refused the offer. Shame, because there was so much mundane work a PA could do to enable my Doctors to see patients in A&E.

[Mike Henley 🤨 @trentconsultant]

And this has been worsened by the attached graph. It's nothing to do with lack of effort by NHS staff but lack of the investment needed in infrastructure; beds, kit, theatres & support staff.

[The BMJ @bmj_latest]

The government used 1000 additional specialty training posts "as leverage and has stymied the pipeline of future consultants and GPs. This approach not only penalises doctors but ultimately harms patients."

@DrLukeCraddock on the resident doctor strike
https://t.co/WwiYJl5vSW

[Fred Bloggs @MurrayJohn2000]

@wesstreeting Meanwhile, project 'replace doctors with untrained pretend doctors' continues https://t.co/UifcQSmXTR

[Eileen Molloy @dirtybird12345]

A political choice, which I believe to be intentional. Just a member of the public but see their game play. @UKLabour is axing Drs jobs, they're paying £25-75m a year to fund substitute Drs, PAs/ACPs/ANPs. They're lowering the bar, funding an unregulated, underqualified workforce

[Dr Steve Taylor @DrSteveTaylor]

They woke up after the pandemic having asked nicely for pay rises to be told that the claps should have been enough

The Govt didn’t listen so they went on strike

The Tories finally gave them some & when Wes got in, he promised a ‘journey’ back to pay restoration

But it stopped

[Maxi @AllForProgress_]

Junior doctors in this country are paid less per hour than the people who deliver their shopping.

This is not a metaphor and it's not hyperbole; it's the actual hourly rate after a five-year degree, mounting debt, and the kind of training the rest of the world still sends its students here to receive.

They are striking this week and the government's response has been to threaten to cut a thousand training places if they don't fold inside forty-eight hours.

Think about what kind of person becomes a doctor in Britain in 2026. They know the pay. They know the hours. They know the system is short-staffed in ways that will haunt their entire careers. They do it anyway, because they are (like people going in teaching in 2026) the most precious and sainted kinds of lunatics, and because something in them still believes the work matters.

That instinct is one of the most precious minearls this country owns. Naturally, government's instinct, as is its instinct whenever it encounters value, is to systematically beat and starve it to death.

When the last of those people give up and go to Sydney or Toronto or just leave medicine altogether, the loss will not be visible for years. It will become evident later, in waiting lists nobody can clear, in cancers caught too late, in the slow disappearance of the assumption that if something terrible happens to your child there will be someone competent and present to help.

You cannot rely on that saving grace any longer.

We are eating the seed corn of British medicine, and the bill will be paid by people who don't even know yet that they are going to need it.

[Swarup @swap2013]

Clearly shows that consultants need to get better pay and if the resident doctors pay was put on the graph, that would show it is much lower. They are striking for a reason and public need to understand that.