Dear Members,
I hope you're all well. I am a doctor currently studying a second degree in dentistry with the intention of being a head and neck cancer surgeon. (The specific field I want to go into requires both degrees.) I am about to start my 9th year at university at great personal expense with the intention of doing operations which in some cases can last 14 hours or more continuously.
Jeremy Hunt this week has implied, nay stated, that doctors are unprofessional, and we do not have a sense of vocation. Any of you who know doctors (particularly hospital doctors) personally will know that is not true.
When I first graduated from medicine, I worked out I was making around £9 per hour after having spent 5 years at university and having amassed significant student debt which I am still yet to pay off. My choice of field and the need to study a second 4 year degree has only made this worse. My pay won't be significantly better once I graduate from dentistry. It's a bit cliche at the minute, but I genuinely would have been better off being a Tube driver. I find it insulting to be called unprofessional or lacking a sense of vocation - I could have picked any career I wanted and I chose to pick a career which pays less to work more hours in the hope I could help other people.
I am actually in support of some of the Tory ideas regarding the NHS - there has to be a change somewhere. Pretty much ALL of the doctors I know are in support of a properly funded and appropriately staffed 7 day NHS. But the reality is medicine is not an attractive profession anymore, and we are short of staff and the staff we do have are getting increasingly exhausted. Mr Hunt is now suggesting approximately a real terms 20% pay cut (after year on year pay freezes), with more unsociable hours that will detract from care during the week.
Aside from this, doctors don't work alone - we need all of the paramedical team (nurses, healthcare assistants, physios, dieticians, speech and language therapists, radiographers, administrative staff, porters, cleaners etc etc etc etc etc) to do our jobs, and forcing doctors to do more weekend hours will not help anything.
Our NHS can't afford any more demoralisation of our staff. Please support your NHS and sign this petition calling to debate a vote of no confidence in Jeremy Hunt. The medical profession largely feels he is out of touch, trying to force through policies that will harm patients and is lying to discredit us in the public eye. His position as Health Secretary is untenable.
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/104334Thank you
