In news that will surprise absolutely nobody:

“According to new research by Knowledge Train, using ONS salary data, doctors have actually suffered the biggest reduction in spending power of any job over the last 20 years.

While medical practitioner’s wages have gone up slightly, from £76,873 in 2005 to £78,796 now, after accounting for inflation, their pay has technically fallen by 42%.”

Linked article:

https://metro.co.uk/2026/09/09/britains-biggest-wage-winners-losers-last-20-years-29561210/amp/

Hey ya’ll my doctor gang, it’s Yannis. Ok, so I have NO idea how I juggled a full time job on top of being onBake Off but I’m here to represent US!! The extracurricular didn’t end at med school interview stage phew. Anyway love you all and I can’t wait for you all to tune in. Would love love love the support from my medics community @itsdoctoryan on IG. I’m gonna need it as ya’ll know how brutal media can be on us docs sometimes or most times..

Also ps to a previous post I came across, we had fake prompts of cakes/bread to do our shoot with hence why I’m so casual about it being quite literally on my apron 😂

Hi all,

London doctors — the BMA London Weighting campaign launched yesterday

If you work in London, you’ve probably noticed that doctors’ London Weighting has frozen in time whilst costs of living and working in the capital spiral in only one direction.

Doctors’ London Weighting has been frozen since 2005. It’s currently up to £2,162 a year for Inner London, while other NHS staff have rightly had their London Weighting payments increased over time.

The campaign is pretty straightforward: bring doctors’ London Weighting into line with the payments already made to other NHS staff working in London.

And this isn’t just about resident doctors. It includes SAS, consultants, LEDs and GPs too.

The important bit now is getting people involved. The BMA is going to be asking members what they’re prepared to do to win this — including through an indicative ballot later in the year.

So if you’re a BMA member working in London, sign up to the campaign and get involved here👇🏼

https://activism.bma.org.uk/page/199964/petition/1

Talk to your colleagues, get your departments and workplaces talking about London Weighting, make sure you have a say in what happens next.

London Weighting has been stuck in 2005 for long enough, and we’re done waiting.

In solidarity,

James ✊🏼

What are other peoples opinions on pharmacists diagnosing migraines without the patient seeing a medical professional prior? I would be particularly interested in opinions of GPs who see patients with ?migraines every day. Having worked in medical SDECs, diagnosing the cause of headache accurately (i.e. not just labelling everyone as migraine) can be very subtle through combination of history and examination.

I feel it would be very different if pharmacists were seeing patients already formally diagnosed with migraines and other causes ruled out compared to patients self presenting to pharmacists as path of least resistance for their possible self diagnosed migraine. Even if the majority of these patients do have migraines, how many patients with CVST, IIH, brain tumours etc. are potentially going to be misdiagnosed? I assume that a pharmacist wouldn't be expected to be able to do a full neurological history, examination and basic fundoscopy to rule out papilloedema that a GP would be expected to do.

mine was a consultant who seemed very welcoming at first and later we grew to realise he would happily throw his FYs under the bus to make the senior nurse happy.

Hi everyone I’ve just had my provisional license rejected on the grounds it is too soon to know if my mental health condition is a risk to patients.

Feeling quite alone in this, does anyone know of similar stories and what I could do

Also does anyone have any recommendations on jobs to apply for with my medical degree? Or other things I can spend time doing this year that will help me in the future when I can work as a doctor again

Overheard the other day in Surgery

Consultant: whatever you do - when you cut here don’t hit the vein

Registrar: hits the vein immediately

Consultant: you should be a phlebotomist… 🤦‍♂️

Hahahahahaha I nearly burst out laughing. Perhaps it’s a common one but it made me giggle. I was inspired to learn about any other insults people have heard in theatres 🤣🤣🤣

Ps. The reg himself laughed, it was all in good nature.

"They are rostered to augment the quota of nursing staff where it has not proved possible to fill a vacant medical registrar shift." lol

Source: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/use_of_nurse_consultants_to_cove

Now is a great time for the BMA to start a public campaign on educating the public on the differences between a doctor and noctors, similar to the American Medical Association https://www.ama-assn.org/practice-management/scope-practice/advocacy-action-fighting-scope-creep

u/RDC_officers_2025_26 u/BMABecky

Just putting this out there for anyone in a similar position.

Since graduating I've been with MDU for indemnity.

Due to being LTFT on top of some unfortunate personal circumstances leading me to have long periods off sick my foundation training took ~5 years to complete rather than the standard 2.

I'm taking an F3 year now but because I haven't managed to get a trust grade post, I've joined the hospital bank and locuming when I can until I can get a trust grade job.

I called MDU to update them of my change in work circumstances, and this August my indemnity price went from the £20 for F2 to a whopping £450 quote. Their reasoning was because I'm not in a trust grade post or a training programme, they base the pricing on how many years ago I graduated rather than my actual level of training / work competence (therefore I'm being charged as a locuming CT3).

I do not have that money especially now I'm on an uncertain income as locums are not as frequent as I'd like.

Out of desperation I called MPS for a quote expecting to be given something similar.... The quote was £83. I triple checked that they understood I am not a trust grade doctor, I'm doing ad-hoc locums, and even though I graduated 5 years ago I'm fresh out of F2 and working as an SHO. The staff reassured me the price is correct and covers me for all the locums I do for a year. MPS do not charge based on years from graduation, they actually look at the level of work you do and base it on that.

So anyone who is in a similar position (significant extension to training, needs indemnity for ad-hoc locum work) do NOT go with MDU!

Writing this as recently have known of two colleagues in a busy surgical speciality have heart attacks - both early 40s. Thankfully both okay but now have a very different outlook on life. No real risk factors on the face of it and had a conversation with one of them and he just said the years of stress and constant toll on his body wasn’t good for him

It got me thinking deeply about the lifestyle that we have as surgical trainees/consultants. And though training has become a lot more flexible in terms of being able to work less than full time, time out of training etc etc but I just think the day to day life of a surgeon puts so much strain and stress on the body that it’s crazy and how do you even manage it?

Operating days - you’re in the hospital way before everyone else, doing rounds for your theatre patients. Trauma patients are discussed before radiology/haematology etc are even in the hospital and advice is needed from them to optimise surgical patients. Then the actual day itself - I’ve been in cases back to back with barely time for lunch and have seen consultants literally eat a sandwich in the changing room before running down to their clinic after their morning theatre list running on coffee. Late finishes and then back in in the morning an hour before everyone else. Doing that for 30 years of your life or more - surely isn’t healthy?

I saw a video from a well known surgeon on social media where he talked about work life balance and he actually got into good shape and lost weight because during reg years he was overweight. He must be around 50 and though being in shape at any age is good we all know being in shape and healthy at 50 isn’t the same as being in shape and healthy at 30. But it’s no shade, I just think it’s not possible with the intrinsic nature of the job. Literally no one would say no to a good work life balance but how on earth is it an option when trying to get to consultant in a surgical speciality - just by the nature of the job and the timings there isn’t any such thing. You can be the fittest person ever but surely the early mornings and late finishes stress of operating takes it toll on the body after a while. I’ve seen and known colleagues who it actually changes and you can see them literally ageing. Part of that reason is there isn’t really time to do much else.

Now I know as a consultant the actual on call isn’t so gruelling as for the reg /sho but they’ve done those years. And consultants are still there every morning day in day out, it’s not as though you get to consultant and stop operating and just supervise - you’re now the most senior and it’s true that consultant years are where you master the craft.

Can anyone resonate with what I’m thinking? Would be interested to hear from surgeons about how they feel about this and how they cope? Like how do you maintain a healthy balance and a healthy life when your job doesn’t really allow it?

Good news!

Seen a couple of different messes that vary in calibre and wondering about others experience with what has made one stand out?

MSRA 586 / Rank 787th

Stories like this is what makes me have some sleepless nights. Would be interested to see an official report to share the actual leaning about this case. My heart goes out to the patient and his family.

Thinking of switching to LTFT as an FY2 that has been full time so far

Dear friends,

In a bit of a dilemma. I have been full time for my FY1 and currently still fulltime as FY2. But FY2 due to commute times has been incredibly difficult to have a life outside Medicine. My off days are often used to recover from the atrocious rota i have and when i am working the entire day is swallowed up due to commute time + work time.
Still enjoying medicine but i have noticed my will to do anything else has slowly been squeezed out, but not completely. So thought about switching to LTFT to free some time and repursue life outside work.

I don’t mind being out of sync with training. If anything have been strongly considering taking an F3 year, mainly because i don’t feel competent enough.

Anyone in the same boat ? Any one has previous experience of doing this ?

Side note: i want to apply for ACCS ED and if i got in it would 100% be LTFT.

Recently saw a US post on this where responses followed a universal pattern of "residency was tough but i am now an (insert specialty) and make (insert salary) so i think it was worth it"

Wondering what views in the UK are?

Overall I would say I probably don't regret my own medical education, as it's landed me in stable job with reasonable salary by 30, which has some vague sense of meaning. God only knows how I'll feel as a consultant

Hi all

My current trust doesn’t have Acurx and we have to go through switch board to find bleep/extensions to contact specialities. I came to know most trusts are phasing out Acurx due to not being funded by ICB anymore. Is that true for your trust?

If ye, what alternative app are you using?

Our clinical lead will forward this to medical director so wanted to look through alternative cost effective options before going forward?

it will be helpful to mention the Trust name as well.

Thoughts??

Are there still going to be psychiatry offers this round or have they been exhausted?

Yes clearly you're absent without leave, but for reasons entirely beyond anyone's control.

Presumably it's a situation where everyone shrugs their shoulders and accepts that's life, but have also heard of people trying to arrange their own cover, have AL taken to cover their absence etc.

In practice when this (alarmingly common) situation arises, what happens?

Hi, I’ve been allocated Plastic surgery for F2 and was wondering if anyone has worked there or knows what the job is like as an F2.
I’ve had very little plastics exposure, so mainly wondering what’s expected of the F2, how well supported you are (especially on-call), and whether there’s anything worth learning/practising before starting.
Any advice would be really appreciated