And Another Thing...

Brevity.

In my previous post but one, I may have suggested that medical students in general were maligning us whinging docs. That is not the case. What I meant was that much of the 'debate' was originating with e.g medical students rather than qualified docs. I did not mean to suggest that most medical students were engaging in the 'debate'.

The Shroom is happy to clarify this, and hopes he had not caused any offence. (This means you, TLM...)

On the matter of the huge piles of cash we're all rolling in: my salary is a matter of public record. You can go to a variety of websites and see the NHS payscale. This is in stark contrast to several of my friends whose salary is so secret that they are contractually forbidden to disclose it. I notice that when we worked for hourly rates, people were only too happy to share their details.

Now, it's vulgar, apparently - although only the people I suspect earn multiples of my salary think so.

Anyway, depending on how much you think I actually earn, and how many patients I see, the cost per patient works out to be about £20. This is excellent value if you're in a diabetic coma, and I spend six hours of my life resuscitating you. Not such good value if you have a sore throat, and I spend 30 seconds telling you it's viral, drink plenty of fluids, gargle aspirin and munch paracetamol. Granted, but this is averages we're talking about...

Anyway, think on it. £20, all in.

I don't think that's too bad. But then, I wouldn't, would I?