[user104658]

Originally Posted by Livia

Further to my previous comment... I don't know any profession where those in training are overpaid. Indeed, in some professions people work for nothing in order to gain experience. All the GPs at my local surgery work part time because they can afford to, so it's not like their training doesn't lead to lucrative careers.

Junior doctors are not "doctors in training", it doesn't just refer to FY1&2, junior doctor refers to any doctor below consultant level. The only doctors NOT under the "junior doctor" umbrella are those who can go into independent practice i.e. consultants, GP's and a small number of non-consultant specialists.

Couple that with the fact that training entry requirements are sky high, which means people being accepted into medical training could go into basically any field they want ... so if other careers simply offer better salary with (most likely) less effort - medicine degrees are gruelling and from what I hear FY1 and 2 are worse, often 60hr weeks for what? Mid-30k salaries? It works out practically minimum wage .

Yes GPs and consultants can make good money but meh. Why would someone put themselves through that into their 40's when, if they're the sort of straight-A student they'd need to be to get into medicine, they could be making more by their late 20's in another field.

It's a mess just at that. BUT then consider, that a UK medical degree is accepted all over the world, and other countries pay more. A lot more. So what actually happens is, a lot of them simply (and understandably) fk off abroad.

Again the same people who don't like that we import professionals from abroad, don't seem concerned about us losing all of our own professionals to countries that'll pay them.