Archive for January 2009
How much do doctors get paid?
Posted on January 25th, 2009 by Rob
When during my medical school interview I was asked “Why do you want to be a doctor?” I didn’t reply “cos I wanna get paid loads of money”… but I thought it! However, if you do want to make buckets full of cash perhaps medicine isn’t the right career for you. It’s true that medicine is a well paid profession. After all you spend 4-6 years at university, amount thousands of pounds worth of debt, and generally work rubbish hours. There are better paid professions and jobs. How about accountancy or business? Your reasons for choosing a career in medicine are personal to you, however I wouldn’t imagine that money can possibly be a sole reason. I admit that you do get paid pretty well and that sweetens the deal.
The pay scale for doctors is rather complicated, but during this article I will attempt to give you an idea of what doctors get paid. Starting with my salary as a new house officer (F1):
| Month | Gross pay | Deductions | Net pay |
|---|---|---|---|
| August 2008 | ?1483.62 | ?256.70 | ?1330.60 |
| September 2008 | ?1703.41 | ?348.48 | ?1473.35 |
| October 2008 | ?4918.45 | ?1647.51 | ?3389.36 |
| November 2008 | ?1828.41 | ?603.83 | ?1343.00 |
| December 2008 | ?3810.81 | ?1316.03 | ?2613.20 |
The two things that stand out on this is table is firstly the amount you get paid varies greatly from month to month and secondly there are lots of deductions.
The reason that my gross pay varies so much is because I choose to work extra hours as a locum and also because NHS banding changes every 4 months. Most hospitals are short of all grades of doctors because the working hours have reduced so much recently, there simply aren’t the doctors to cover the new shift patterns. This means that if you are motivated by money you can give up your weekends, evening and even holidays to work. The locum rate for a house officer is ?20-30 an hour.
The deductions on a junior doctors pay include income tax (PAYE), national insurance, pension contributions, student loan re-payments, and payment for the doctors mess (?18 per month – see previous blog posting for explanation). Total deductions work out at about 30% of your gross pay.
The basic pay for junior doctors (taken from the NHS careers website):
Foundation House Officer 1 = ?21,862
Foundation House Officer 2 = ?27,116
Specialist Trainee = ?28,976 – ?44,562
GP (non partner) = ?52,462 – ?79,167
GP (partner) = ?80,000 – ?120,000
Consultant = ?73,403 – ?173,638
This is the very basic pay and does not include out of hours banding, locum pay, cremation forms (a major addition to house officers income) or private work (not for junior doctors).
If a person wishes to be cremated once dead a ‘crem form’ must be completed by two different doctors that don’t work together. It is generally the job of the house officer to complete part one of the form. Part one is filled in by a doctor that saw the patient while they were alive, during the illness that lead to their death and can state what the person died of. You must sign the form to say that they are sure that the person died of natural causes and not foul play. Part 2 is completed by the pathologist. The form takes about 20 minutes to complete (less if you knew the patient well) and you get paid ?70 per form. I have a friend who did his first F1 job in care of the elderly and he did an average of 3 forms per week – that’s an extra ?900 per month. Some people think it’s immoral to get paid for this. I even know a doctor that refused to cash the cheques! This is silly because even if you refuse payment the funeral director still charges the family and so by refusing payment you just line the pockets of the funeral director.
NHS doctors also get a salary banding that reflects the hours they work and how unsociable the hours are.
| Band | Hours per week | Unsociable hours | Amount added |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | >56 | any | 100% |
| 2a | 48-56 | Lots ( 1 in 3 weekends ) | 80% |
| 2b | 48-56 | Moderate ( 1 in 5 ) | 50% |
| 1a | 40-48 | Lots ( 1 in 4 ) | 50% |
| 1b | 40-48 | Moderate ( 1 in 6 ) | 40% |
| 1c | 40-48 | Some ( 1 in 8 ) | 20% |
The most common banding for a Foundation House Officer 1 is currently 2b (50%), making the average wage for a F1 ?32,793. Again this is before you do any locum shifts and it doesn’t include the cremation forms. However, fairly soon the most common banding will go down to 40% and then 20% and it won’t be long before all F1 jobs are unbanded.
Remember that during your F1 year you will do 3 four month rotations and each rotation (job) will have a different banding. My girlfriend started with a 40% banding for her first job but then her second job was unbanded resulting in a 40% pay cut. My first job (obstetrics and gynaecology) was unbanded but when I moved to my second job (surgery) I got a 40% pay rise. You will notice, however, that my actual monthly pay was more when I was doing obs and gynae. This is because during the unbanded job I had plenty of spare time to do lots of locum shifts.
3 Comments »Exam time
Posted on January 25th, 2009 by Matt
Most of you reading this will be in the middle of yet another stressful A Level exam period, whether you’re in Year 12 doing the “new” AS Modules for the first time, or in Year 13 doing A2 modules and possibly the legacy AS resits. My college caused a bit of controversy last year, when it decided to scrap the idea of students doing January exams, except for where subjects had a proven record of better overall performance by doing them. This seemed to leave all but the physicists worried about how many exams they had to do in June. After representation from the Learner Forum, the college revoked its decision, and allowed January exams this year.
There were many compelling arguments for not letting students sit exams in January. One of the main ones is that you could have potentially 2 three-hour long exams on the first day back at Christmas; common student feeling in the college appeared that most students didn’t fully revise over the festive season. Another concern for the college was the attendance level of ordinary classes – a lot of students would skip 3 morning lessons to prepare for an afternoon exam, for example. Statistics were sometimes quoted, for example a subject’s performance in January/June compared to just June.
Equally, the students had their own very strong arguments for being allowed to take some modules in January. The reason often cited was that it placed students under a lot of stress. In a lot of cases, they we having to revise the entire one-year syllabus for 3 hour-long exams taking in the morning sitting, but then also needing to know another year-long syllabus for 3 hour-long exams in a different subject in the afternoon sitting. Increased time in the exam hall means less time between exams, so most people couldn’t spend an hour or so doing last-minute cramming. Also, a lot of students were worried about resits; if you don’t quite get the grade you want in January, you can apply to retake it in June (the same academic year), but if you need to retake following the June series, you have to wait until January (the next academic year). This could have adverse effects with a UCAS application, because if your predicted grade is an A, but your AS is only a B or a C it doesn’t look as good – and UCAS has no way of telling universities that you are planning to resit that module you got a C or a D in!
I’ve found that by going along to extra study clinics, or extra lessons offered by your subject lecturer is a great way to prepare for forthcoming exams. Every lecturer I know has a different style when it comes to running these – some prefer to work on basic practical skills, some will take any questions from students, some hand out past exam papers, and others facilitate small group discussions amongst the students. For me personally, I can sometimes find it hard to make time to revise, especially when there is so much going on around me all the time, so by going to these sessions, it’s like adding guaranteed revision to my timetable. Attending these should be supplemented by individual revision, for example doing a past paper one night a week, and asking your lecturer to mark it for you – most will if you have made the effort, and will listen to their feedback. And that feedback is often invaluable, because it highlights your weaker areas in the subject, so you know where you can then concentrate your revision.
Finally, best of luck from all of the MedicalAdmissions.co.uk team with all of your exams!
No Comments »All of your eggs…
Posted on January 18th, 2009 by Matt
Don’t put all of your eggs into one basket
Well, I didn’t. My application started out being spread evenly between four good medical schools. Then, on 16th December last year, I got the email from track@ucas.ac.uk informing me that my status had changed – as it turned out I was rejected; one down, and three to go. It was only 2 days later that I got the next email from UCAS Track, and once again the nerves kicked in as I found yet another AS4 (rejection letter) waiting for me.
Last week, the same thing happened to me. Ironically, I got the email less than 5 minutes after saying goodbye to my Connexions PA, when I was telling her how I was still waiting on decisions from 2 medical schools. 5 more minutes of typing web addresses, application numbers, usernames and passwords on the tiny keypad on my phone, and I’d discovered the change. It was from the Univeristy of Southampton medical school, telling me that unfortunately my application to study BM Medicine (A100) had been unsuccessful.
So, here I am, blogging on one screen, a pretty disheartening Track on another. Like a few medical applicants, I’m now waiting for that fourth and final medical school to consider my application and make their decision – whatever that may be. I’ve applied to do Medicine (A100) at the University of Bristol, and I know that they interview their applicants. I’m getting some pretty tough-going practice at questions from Rob, just in case I need it. At the moment, I’m checking my pigeonhole at halls as soon as I can every day, and silently hoping for that letter…
Matt plans to write to the medical schools that rejected him, and hopefully gain an insight into what he needs to do better if he is unsuccessful this year!
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