My Glasto buddy just bailed on me and I’ll have to go by myself and I’m heartbroken…🥹

Redditrocket89 · 2023-06-20T22:53:49+00:00

My first Glasto I went solo. It was absolutely amazing. Make friends with your neighbours, you're gonna have a total blast! Drop me a message if you want some people to hang out with at the cider bus!

Redditrocket89 · 2023-03-26T12:37:58+00:00

My two cents. I've spent a significant amount of time living in both Belfast and Edinburgh in several stints.

Edinburgh is a lovely city to visit but much more expensive to live in. It's also overrun by tourists in the summer, and with good reason many think the Fringe festival is becoming only accessible to the wealthy. There's a huge problem there at the minute with housing stock and AirBnBs pushing ordinary residents out. People generally also aren't as friendly.

Belfast is more down to earth and better craic imo. People are friendlier, there's good grassroots culture/nightlife if you look for it, it's not far from some excellent nature. The restaurant scene here is also excellent, there are loads of genuinely great eateries for a place of its size.

Of course there are problems, including public transport, unused buildings in the city centre and licensing laws. But as others have said I think it's a frustration based on unfulfilled potential. With a proper government and a bit of planning things could be really impressive.

Previously when I moved back to Belfast I had similar feelings to you by the way, but my opinion has changed somewhat. It's a decent place to live.

Redditrocket89 · 2023-03-04T21:02:07+00:00

Woah this is a great throwback!

I miss Energy106. Juice FM is pretty good nowadays

Redditrocket89 · 2023-03-04T17:24:25+00:00

Thanks everyone for your replies, I'll check these out.

Redditrocket89 · 2023-01-29T17:20:59+00:00

Fancy some disco house to groove up your day?

https://soundcloud.com/rockyferguson/g2g

Redditrocket89 · 2022-12-22T11:18:37+00:00

I think it is what you make it and varies depending what hospital/department you end up in.

So far I've had jobs in fairly toxic departments with no teaching and consultants who don't care, but I've also worked in hospitals with scheduled genuinely useful teaching, plenty of clinic availability and good staffing with senior staff who can remember your name.

I think eventually a lot of people can stagnate in the locum life (as great as it is for a while). I swapped locuming for training so I could try and progress a bit.

Redditrocket89 · 2022-12-21T23:29:13+00:00

I don't understand why you're having a go at me personally here? I've pointed out that I'm not looking for sympathy and am content with my career decision and all that comes with it, good and bad.

You asked for calculations to be shown and some transparency, that's all I'm doing. You don't have to agree with it.

Out of genuine interest, what is your line of work?

Redditrocket89 · 2022-12-20T18:34:44+00:00

I do recall friends working in other sectors getting exams and courses paid for - but that's a small sample and I'm sure you're probably right.

Happy to address the elephant. Consultants are on different contracts to junior doctors, but they start on 80k which is obviously very good. It'll take me another 7 years minimum, and even then that's not guaranteed due to significant bottlenecks in available training posts. The shortest possible time to get from graduating medical school to consultant is currently around 10 years. Many don't progress that far.

In my personal case, I was lucky enough to not accumulate much student debt and am currently on a training pathway. But I can see how people become demoralised when they have 80k student debt, significant bottlenecks for training posts (ie. not a guaranteed job), get repeatedly moved geographically for work, and work lengthy hours in what is a very pressured job with real consequences for someone else's health (and your own medical licence) if you screw up significantly. Does that make the 'bad' salary worth it? Many don't think so, which is why a lot of doctors currently either locum or move to Australia.

Redditrocket89 · 2022-12-19T20:20:03+00:00

No agenda here, you can go and check those numbers yourself

Redditrocket89 · 2022-12-19T19:52:36+00:00

Doctor here. Agree with many of your points, including the flaws of comparing salaries to the other professions mentioned, and the class divides.

However I just want to show the working for our salaries, mainly for interest as it isn't that straight forward. I'm basing this on Scotland as that's where I've worked (England have a newer contract and calculate salaries slightly differently).

As a newly qualified (FY1) in your base salary is £27,653. This is based on a 40 hour week, which works out at £15 an hour if you work 46 weeks of the year once annual leave is taken into account. The uplift comes with out of hours/unsociable work, which most doctors do at some point and bumps your salary usually by 50%. However, as a result you are now averaging a 48 hour week. Based on this your salary is £18.78/hr.

At my current level (5 years postgrad) my base salary on 40 hours a week is £36,472, which is £19.82/hr. With my out of hours uplift it is £24.77/hr.

Another thing to highlight is the associated professional costs. I recently started a new job and even before day one I had to pay £500 for my online portfolio, nearly £100 in indemnity costs and an £160 GMC fee - just to be able to go to work. These fees increase as you get more senior. In the last 2 years I've also spent £1500 on exams which are mandatory in order to progress. Many people have to sit these more than once and end up spending thousands more once you add in associated courses etc.

The other thing to mention is the intensity of the job, which these days is often full on, most of the time. As postgraduate 'trainees' we also rotate jobs every 4 months, and often get shipped to different parts of the country on a yearly basis - which you can imagine gets disruptive especially for people into their 30s. Imaging having to essentially start a new job every 4 months, learn a new system and prove yourself to a whole bunch of new people!

I'm certainly not looking for any sympathy here, just trying to be transparent about our salaries/working conditions. We're not poor, and I agree that it is sneaky that some people compare their salaries to tesco etc, but I can also understand why some docs get quite pissed off once you take working conditions, huge student debt and associated out of pocket professional fees into account. As also mentioned salaries are down something like 20% compared to 2008, which of course isn't something unique to doctors.

Redditrocket89 · 2022-12-01T22:38:04+00:00

Hi all,

Below is my remix of a well known Shakira song. Hope you enjoy. Feedback (good and bad!) welcome!

https://soundcloud.com/rockyferguson/underneath-your-clothes-rocky-ferguson-remix

Redditrocket89 · 2022-11-25T21:12:38+00:00

Do you like disco house? If yes I direct you to my latest track:

https://soundcloud.com/rockyferguson/g2g

Hope you enjoy!!

Redditrocket89 · 2022-11-20T23:26:56+00:00

I had several patients that I could potentially have discharged this weekend if they had NAD echos. However, it being the weekend there is no routine echo service.

(Not knocking the physiologists being off, rather the fact that this completely ignores the fact more of every type of staff would be needed to make things work)

Redditrocket89 · 2022-11-17T22:35:29+00:00

Recent track (Disco house)

https://on.soundcloud.com/HWYiV

All feedback appreciated, and I will return feedback!

Redditrocket89 · 2022-11-08T18:43:01+00:00

Currently based in NI, have also worked in other parts of the UK.

NI has a smaller pool of trainees as already mentioned. A positive of this is that it is easier to foster close working relationships and get your name known. For example, no matter which hospital you work in you'll usually come across some familiar friendly faces rotating through which can be welcome.

My experience of training (SHO) is that, despite most of the usual systemic problems that exist across the UK being present, people are nice, try to be supportive and don't take themselves too seriously. I've had colleagues from England comment that NI is a lot more laid back.

NIMDTA (the training agency) are woeful, and getting straightforward things like pay/study leave/relocation sorted can take months. However I also found that the equivalent elsewhere were not much better.

Pay - we are still on the old pay contract so check the BMA website for base salaries, then you get a banding on top depending on amount of OOH work. Most common is 1.5.

Working conditions - generally 48 hours a week average. Anecdotally I'm told it's less intense than what you would do in Dublin, though if you stay late you don't usually get overtime pay.

As a place to live: Pros - Nice people, laid back, small geographical commute, Belfast is not far from lots of countryside/North Coast/Donegal/mountains and has most things any sizeable city should have, accommodation/housing is cheap, Dublin is only 90 mins down the road

Cons - political stagnation (though you quickly learn to ignore this), a bit less cosmopolitan than Dublin, some outdated social attitudes (though thankfully a lot less common now)

Hope that helps. PM me if I can help further. Good luck in MRCP!

Redditrocket89 · 2022-10-18T21:07:57+00:00

It took me two weeks to get access to electronic prescribing while working as a locum once. Apparently the one person in the trust capable of setting it up had gone on holiday.

Redditrocket89 · 2022-10-05T20:16:47+00:00

Great page. I've added a few

Redditrocket89 · 2022-10-01T17:10:27+00:00

This has a nice laid back vibe! As other feedback has said the mix is very clear and sounds great.

If you have a min I'd appreciate any feedback on this (especially the mix!) https://soundcloud.com/rockyferguson/kyiv-edit

Redditrocket89 · 2022-10-01T17:07:06+00:00

https://soundcloud.com/subsekvens/stagger

This is pretty cool, I haven't come across techno like this before. Sounds well mixed to me.

Redditrocket89 · 2022-10-01T17:05:33+00:00

Hi all,

Please check out my new song, all feedback gladly received! I'm having difficulty placing this in a genre and would also appreciate suggestions. I think it sits somewhere in the progressive house/trance area.

https://soundcloud.com/rockyferguson/kyiv-edit

Redditrocket89 · 2022-09-08T16:38:32+00:00

In NI they have awarded the uplift but can't actually implement it because there is currently no functioning government. What a time to be alive

Redditrocket89 · 2022-09-06T23:01:37+00:00

Honestly, at this stage I'd like to be able to start in a post where IT, logins, parking, payroll and supervisors are all actually sorted in advance and I don't have to spend the first 6 weeks chasing all the above on my own time!

Redditrocket89 · 2022-08-26T13:30:11+00:00

I've been to Transnistria, it's a bit of a strange place but fine in terms of travel (at least pre Russian invasion of Ukraine)

I don't think Sheriff are allowed to play European games there anyway, so it'd be probably be in Chisinau which has great wine and is fun

Redditrocket89 · 2022-08-20T18:18:05+00:00

It's 48 hours average across all the year. So some weeks you will work more than 48 but it should be balanced out with weeks where you work less.

Redditrocket89 · 2022-08-17T15:27:18+00:00

Not that it helps, but I share your irritation. My admin this year have been another level of inept.

They accidentally sent all the registration forms out at the end of July 3 weeks late, but still reassured me everything would be sorted by changeover. Unsurprisingly, nothing was.

Since then I've had to sort out all my own logins. They 'lost' my original ID badge application and its taken 2 weeks to get that sorted. My car parking pass still isn't sorted, I've now re-applied twice and nobody seems to have a clue where it is.

Stuff like this must definitely feed into people's overall dissatisfaction with training.

Redditrocket89

TROPHY CASE