The real problem for junior doctors: someone took all the fun and perks away

Image by Steven Fruitsmaark

A recent 20 year medical school reunion got me thinking about the expectations I had of medicine in the early years. I thought there would be hard work, a long slog of a career but in return, there would be respect, a position in society and the satisfaction of an excellent training behind us and no more noble a job.

Older and wiser colleagues warned me quietly I would probably make a fatal mistake in my first year – something I would carry with me for the rest of my days – but I also had the knowledge that colleagues would stand by me and that I was unlikely to be sued, pursued by The Daily Mail or hung out to dry by management or the GMC.

What made us so optimistic back then?

We were paid an hourly rate less than the hospital cleaner for being on call. We shrugged this off because we were respected, we had ‘perks’, we thought we had a great future ahead of us and we were bonded together by black jokes and our tightly knit teams.

My Jewish house officer counterpart, went home early on the Sabbath in winter while I held her bleep (an act no time sheet these days would allow), while she held my bleep on the long weekends on call when I had thrown caution to the wind and stayed out all Friday night.

Job perks were allowed: consultants had their own dining room and juniors had their own ‘mess’ (or in one hospital, even their own bar). The mess was thick with cigarette smoke, littered with takeaway cartons and full of the black jokes that only medics find amusing.

There was a room where you could sleep when you were on call.

All of these – the mess, the bar and the bedrooms – are now management offices of course.

Perks are now seen as unethical by busybodies in charge who have ironed all the fun out of work.  Other things that also make work more bearable like free parking or flirting are also disallowed.

Of course, perks are permissible in any other career - MP’s expenses, or even a cafe-worker taking away an unsold pastry at the end of the day. All except for NHS workers of course, because any ‘perk’ would trigger a meeting of the fun-eradicators that now make up the rules.

What do juniors have now?

Someone following them around the ward with a clipboard making sure they have a certificate to wash their hands and a 16 page document on how to wear clothes at work and then wash them when they get home.

No wonder they want to strike.

Read why GPs are supporting junior doctors and how doctors blocked Westminster in protest.