The UK trained thousands of doctors, then told them: sorry, no jobs

[slapper]

Article from ft.com: ‘The system does not want me’: why some doctors struggle to land jobs
Archive.ph link to avoid paywall: https://archive.ph/z48b9

I keep thinking after reading this article from the UK and I cannot get it out of my head. For the past years, the government told young people, become a doctor, we need you, the health system is dying. So thousands of kids were listening. They studied for 6, 7, 8 years. They gave up their 20s. They took debt. They passed every exam. They did everything right.

And now? More than half of them are unemployed. Not a bad job. No job. And at the same time, the same government says "we have a doctor shortage." So which one is true? How could there be too many doctors, and not enough doctors, at the same time? The answer is simple and it angered me when I got to understand the answer. They opened more medical schools but they did not create more jobs for the doctors to actually work and training after graduation. Imagine a car making factory with no roads. That is what happened. They made the doctors, and forgot to make the jobs.

When you have thousands of desperate qualified people fighting for a few places, you can pay them almost nothing. And that is what exactly happened. Temporary work pay fell by 50% or more. Hospitals know that if you said no, someone else will say yes. So doctors who have spent the best part of a decade training are now earning less than before and have no prospect in the future, while their friends pack bags and move to Australia where they are actually wanted. The UK spent a lot of money training these people and now Australia gets them for free.

I am not a doctor. But I know this feeling. I think many of us do. You follow the rules. You do what they told you. And then someone changes the game and say sorry no room for you. This is not just a UK problem and isn't just a doctor problem. This is a pattern. And I wonder, how much of us are in the same situation, different industry, same broken promise? What did you do when you realized the path you used to trust was a dead end?

[mrust_mobile]

The UK has a shortage of healthcare professionals indeed but not the domestic ones that ask rights and high wages. What the UK government wants is to hire cheap workers from the less developed countries because those people will agree to work under any conditions and pretty much for any wage. That’s why we see developed countries importing immigrants from the Middle East. These people will just do whatever they were told. They won’t ask questions. “Yes sir” is all you gonna hear from them. Yes sir sir yes sir. Sometimes maybe a few; Prostagma. Yaparım. Emrin? Warchief. Work-work.

It is not just the UK though. I know Germany is doing the same thing. It is a shitty century to be a nationalist it seems.

Etimos.

[Rgram]

What the UK government wants is to hire cheap workers from the less developed countries because those people will agree to work under any conditions and pretty much for any wage. That’s why we see developed countries importing immigrants from the Middle East. These people will just do whatever they were told. They won’t ask questions. “Yes sir” is all you gonna hear from them. Yes sir sir yes sir. Sometimes maybe a few; Prostagma. Yaparım. Emrin? Warchief. Work-work.

When you haven’t existed or lived in a system, you wouldn’t know if you are being exploited or not. What you might call cheap might be more than these persons might have earned in their countries or part of the world. Be rest assured when they truly get to understand, they would tend to ask questions, after all, they are men and women of science. Before ever such a time comes, it’s just normal that you would answer sire until you could tell your left from your right. That’s not dumb, that’s what you get while you learn and the field is a health first.

[Fortify]

That's quite a manipulative headline. People choose their own careers - they are not told to be doctors and forced to complete the multi year medical training that costs hundreds of thousands to complete. In fact it's a small number of people who will even have the abilities and financial backing to do this. There are doctors jobs around, I think what you're missing is the fact that "temporary work" means overtime rates on top of already super expensive skills. The NHS cannot afford to pay the obscene rates that agency doctors cost and these are the doctors moaning about not getting any work. Doctors are in high demand all over the world as you point out, and those with a UK education will have zero problems going abroad and in many cases have a better life for doing so, not sure anyone is really complaining except the ones who don't follow demand for their services as premium prices.

[Alvin_talk]

@ OP, I do not fully agree with you. I am a Nigerian and I can assure you that so many doctors from my country are constantly being recruited by UK government and medical firms in the UK. In fact my government had to place some visa restriction and conditions on those in the medical field, especially doctors and nurses as they were all migrating to the UK because of employment guarantee which in return made our own health system short staffed.

There are medical job vacancies in the UK and it's not a rumour because I have experienced it first hand, even my next door neighbour who happens to be a medical doctor here in Nigeria was recently offered a job in the UK after completing a six months training course last year.
If they really had to many quilified doctors, I don't think they will be recruiting internationally. The real problem here is not an over-supply of doctors rather it is an over-supply's in certain area of expertise because the NHS still has a lot of vacancies in areas such as emergency medicine, geriatrics, mental health, and rural hospitals. Therefore it is really difficult to make such  claims that doctors are made while there are no jobs for them in the UK.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

OP, the first part of your description happened in the US some years back, the declaration of doctor shortages (particularly in "underserved areas".  That phrase always made me slap my head, because it's like saying there's no docs in this here area where there ain't no docs.), the building of more medical schools, but the outcome was very different than how you're describing present-day UK.  I'm not sure how that didn't happen, since in addition to medical schools that produce M.D.'s and D.O.s there are also plenty of APRNs and PAs (physician assistants if you didn't know) who can diagnose and prescribe treatment with few limitations.

But hey, we're all really fucking sick over here.

However, I met more pre-meds in college than I would have liked to, and I've seen so many egotistical or incompetent or nasty doctors that it's really goddamn hard for me to muster up much sympathy for their plight across the pond.  I've come to loathe the medical profession, in fact.  I still see it as a noble profession, don't get me wrong there, but those pre-med students aren't the first human beings to be lied to by the government and/or the media.  Hundreds of thousands of mutilated or mentally ill military veterans would back me up--even more if the dead ones could rise from their graves.

By the way, if you've got a medical degree but there aren't enough jobs in practice, there are a lot of other careers where that acquired knowledge and skill set would come in very handy and many companies in the health care industry that employ physicians in non-clinical roles.  Sure, that might not be ideal for the vast majority of unemployed doctors in the UK, but welcome to the real world.  People much worse off are getting a harder and agonizingly-sustained fucking over and have been for longer than we've all been alive.  Who carries picket signs around for them?

[Asiska02]

I am not a doctor. But I know this feeling. I think many of us do. You follow the rules. You do what they told you. And then someone changes the game and say sorry no room for you. This is not just a UK problem and isn't just a doctor problem. This is a pattern. And I wonder, how much of us are in the same situation, different industry, same broken promise? What did you do when you realized the path you used to trust was a dead end?

I am actually surprised reading the title of your topic and reading through your posts about the shortage of job for Doctors in the UK. This is something that is more rampant in under developed countries like mine and we are use to seeing many graduates even in the health sector not getting jobs even though we lack Doctors and health professionals to manage our hospitals well. The government isn’t doing the best of work there and health professions that use to be sorted for most are no more like that as more and more graduates of health professions can’t get work and those in the system are getting underpaid. They generally face low payment and no enthusiasm to work because of the poor conditions of the hospital.

In the case of UK, many Doctors from my country are running there because they get better pay for their services that my government can pay to keep them in the system, so it’s surprising seeing that indigenes of the country can’t get work even after schools, it is very disheartening to see actually. Now I see that every country has where they’re lacking and cannot be perfect in anyway. Creating more hospitals in the country even in the rural areas should help solve this issue and reduce the crisis of many Doctors out of work even after spending years to get that experience and certification. There is always a solution and the government should look into it, I never expected such a country like UK will be facing this type of challenge.

[Odogwu-Blockchain]

This is not just a UK problem and isn't just a doctor problem. This is a pattern. And I wonder, how much of us are in the same situation, different industry, same broken promise? What did you do when you realized the path you used to trust was a dead end?

I was only thinking this pattern happens only in underdeveloped countries where the leaders often there for their benefits and families. It's rare for a doctor or other professionals to get a job in underdeveloped countries by merits, it's always by connection or by job purchase.

This got me wondering if the same pattern occurs in UK, but I'm sure there is no corruption in the UK system by the leaders, just that there is no jobs right?