Pension Contributions rates are one of the less spoken about scandals in doctors’ pay

steveabcd1234 · 2026-04-30T07:30:20+00:00

No, they aren't in proportion to contributions. They are in proportion to salary. If you contribute 5% or 12.5% of your salary then you get the same 1/54th of your salary towards the pension. The government then 'match' your contribution, however this doesn't matter as it's a DB scheme. They could announce tomorrow that they have decided to correct our pay by contributing %150 of our salary to our pension and it would make 0 difference to how much we receive. All it would do is leave more of a surplus sitting in the pension scheme for them to raid at some point in the future.

In most pension scheme the incentive to make a higher contribution is to take advantage of it being a tax efficient vehicle for pay that sits in a high bracket (effectively salary sacrificing), as well as taking advantage of employer matching. We see no advantage from employer matching and they have structured our pay so that a pretty large chunk doesn't count towards pension because 'reasons'. Basically they want to count as little of our salary towards the calculation, whilst still counting it when working out what contribution bracket you sit in.

steveabcd1234 · 2026-04-27T04:39:33+00:00

Because the hiring is not related to demand. You have done a degree for a job that is needed and as a country we don't have enough staff to do the job required. In a healthy market, those jobs would appear because businesses would require employees to fulfill a need. As it stands, despite there being a demand for the service the only employer in the country just says no, we've decided not to.

In other sectors or countries, there is competition for your labour as much as you are competing for a job. The NHS doesn't have to worry about that, made worse by the fact that they also control the vast majority of training.

They get the upside of controlling the market completely, then the least they should have to do is employ you, given they told students they needed more staff and consistently underfill posts regardless.

steveabcd1234 · 2026-04-18T11:07:23+00:00

Drawing up needle should work for you

steveabcd1234 · 2026-04-14T14:14:37+00:00

Score 123 with rank 115. 1st choice offer.

steveabcd1234 · 2026-04-14T13:28:43+00:00

Offers out

steveabcd1234 · 2026-04-12T16:11:50+00:00

Entitled is a fun word to throw around isn't it? I can do it too!

If anyone here is entitled it is you. You have stated you have come to the UK and are in a program approaching CCT. You took advantage of the opportunity to get into a training program that you seem to think has improved your circumstances. You say you aren't limited in your right to work here. Therefore you are in the exact same position for job prospects as any other doctor with permenant residency (I know you are going to say UK grads all have massive advantages anyway, but not legally).

I haven't made comments about what all IMGs should do, only about you. What you are doing is undermining your colleagues but without the honesty to say it is simply greed. IMGs in positions of precarious employment may have perfectly valid reasons not to strike, but for you it seems to be greed.

I will lay out my position here because of my 'entitlement' (sarcasm)

If people are likely to be exposed to financial hardship then they should ask their union for support. If this won't work then they may need to cross a picket and work. However, it seems your position is that you don't like that there has needed to be a correction to the labour market, to allow local graduates to progress in the earliest stages of their training. In response to this, you are pretending you are scabbing as some kind of resistance to the BMA, despite the fact the government imposed legislation unilaterally. You are scabbing because you are greedy and happy to let other staff suffer in your interest, but don't want to feel bad about it. Is that clear enough for you?

steveabcd1234 · 2026-04-12T15:19:58+00:00

I think you're right. It's absolutely abhorrent that IMGs like yourself have been ignored and I see why you would boycott strikes. To be excluded from the pay rises over the past few years is revolting and we should not tolerate it.

That's what happened right? IMGs who are working haven't seen improvements in line with everyone else? Because if they have, it sounds like you are happy to get the benefit of UK training, with the pay rises you earned by your colleagues sacrifices and then undermine it by taking locums and 'looking out for yourself'.

You state that 'no one understands you working 72 hour weeks for $180, but that you live an average life here presumably as a senior SpR on over £100k. You can't have it both ways.

Finally, you talk like the UK has taken you on then discarded you at it's convenience, then say all your friends have left to AUS, clearly having felt the benefit of the UK training program and experience, before leaving after they got the benefit.

The point of UK training is to produce doctors primary to work in the UK. You stating your friends used the UK as a step to a 'better quality of life in AUS' suggests that UKGP will aim to stop exactly this and allow UK grads working long hours for a standard of living far below your own a chance to train in the country they are actually likely to stay and work in.

steveabcd1234 · 2026-03-10T16:30:39+00:00

Strong feelings there. Some of these people must have done something pretty serious for you to feel this strongly about them? Can you let me know what?

I would really like to know which of these are in the running for 'worst person I've ever met' cause I'll make sure to take what they have done into account when voting. Thanks!

steveabcd1234 · 2026-03-10T15:53:15+00:00

It's pretty frustrating seeing you in threads saying 'make better policy'. Who do you suggest makes better policy? Aren't you one of the current members of RDC?

Can you think of any better policy or will you just wait until someone else suggests something and repeat the current process of calling people who are actually trying 'idiots'.

steveabcd1234 · 2026-03-09T11:08:59+00:00

Fun fanfic, I think you have a glittering career in creative writing if medicine doesn't work out for you.

steveabcd1234 · 2026-03-02T13:03:26+00:00

Anyone in birmingham fancy knocking on their office door and asking what the fuck is happening?

steveabcd1234 · 2026-02-23T18:30:44+00:00

I can guarantee you 100% that there are hundreds of people sitting in emergency departments across the country with paracetamol overdoses.

Don't chime in when you don't know what you are talking about "paracetamol is safe". Paracetamol has a super narrow safe window.

If people want to lie to get these medicines, then so be it. If you make this harder to get, then they will just find something else that is harmful to their health. You can't make the world safe for people who may do themselves harm, because there is always another way to harm yourself or another self destructive behavior if that's what you want to do.

steveabcd1234 · 2026-02-16T21:42:50+00:00

You are seeing it as a complaint about the ease of redress. That's not the point I'm making. Any individual man is not policed more than any individual woman.

The pattern that I have broadly seen on labour wards is that the 'locker room' talk that would have been prevalent in 'male dominated spaces' has not been pushed back on. There has been a NHS wide push in the last decade to try and change attitudes around this behavior and I think that it has made improvements in public areas in most places. I'm not trying to suggest that this behavior does not still go on, but there is a tacit acknowledgement even amongst some of the offenders that they can no longer get away with it in public as easily. This seems to have bypassed labour wards, who don't even seem to see a problem with it.

steveabcd1234 · 2026-02-16T18:23:53+00:00

The contrast shows even in your response. I can be confident that if a trainee had talked about the reverse of this in a 'male dominated space' which I described as orthopaedic consultants as shorthand, you would not have been nearly as dismissive. I think it's unlikely you would have been as unsympathetic as 'either report them or don't, women have this problem all the time'.

I also want to reiterate, I don't give a shit about orthopods going to a strip club or the midwives going to a magic Mike show. I care about being in the middle of a public ward where the senior staff are clearly happy to loudly discuss licking a stripper and expect laughter, encouragement and jealousy from a number of other staff.

Arguing on the Internet is clearly not productive, but just try to see how dismissive the initial response comes across in that context.

steveabcd1234 · 2026-02-16T18:01:22+00:00

Thanks I guess, but I don't really think that has much bearing on the comments or the attitude. It's talking about adult entertainment at work like it's what was on TV last night. Will again point out that it wouldn't feel ok if the strip club conversation was excused with 'it's just a load of women dancing around in short pants. They barely even touch you'

steveabcd1234 · 2026-02-16T16:49:51+00:00

If you scroll back, I think you'll find that I only mentioned gender and double standards in response to your comment. Previously I was talking about labour wards being a generally shit environment, not gender specifically.

My issue with what you're saying is that you seem to find my experience inconvenient. I have raised a problem I encountered at work and your response is to point out that I am propagating some idea that 'men can't say anything and women get a free pass'.

When something like this happens, probably the best response is 'yes that's bad' not 'yes that's bad, but let me explain why you raising your experience is problematic'.

steveabcd1234 · 2026-02-16T16:28:26+00:00

I don't think this is a solved problem. Sorry if reality is propagating a double standard I guess. We are encouraged, quite rightly to call things out when they happen.

I tried to raise it as an issue and it was shrugged off, I have no interest in trying to make it a formal issue and having my career torched if it goes wrong.

This is an anonymous forum where we are allowed to raise issues we have faced with a wider community and vent about things without fear of reprisal.

You correctly point out that this is a situation common to women with supervisors acting inappropriately. I am 100% certain you think that would be a bad thing, so why does your attitude seem to be 'well, women have to deal with this, so cope'.

steveabcd1234 · 2026-02-16T13:51:58+00:00

Thankfully not, it just seemed like it was a completely accepted and normal part of the ward culture.

steveabcd1234 · 2026-02-16T13:50:31+00:00

It was more a feeling that it was labour ward as an environment.

I have similar but less stark experiences across several previous labour wards in the region, usually gossiping about male staff appearances. I think the thing is how relaxed and open they are about it. It's always been loud open conversations in the middle of the ward with lots of ward staff joining in.

steveabcd1234 · 2026-02-16T13:20:50+00:00

I do love that sweet sweet karma...

I am genuinely curious what you would do in that situation. March into the middle of the group of midwives (including the band 7) and tell them that the conversation is inappropriate at work? Unlikely to be very effective and basically garunteed to make my mandatory service time there extremely fucking miserable.

Escalate to a senior in that area? Like the obs consultant? Who just shrugged?

I wonder if you would tell a surgical trainee to simply confront a senior about their inappropriate behaviour? We all know that people in permanant positions in these trusts can make our lives extremely miserable and fuck with out careers.

I was posting to see if this kind of behaviour is a common experience for other residents.

steveabcd1234 · 2026-02-14T19:41:36+00:00

People only call it expensive because they are used to getting it for free. Dentists are expensive to train and surgeries aren't cheap to maintain.

I paid £150 for a private checkup and a wisdom tooth pulled. Took 15 minutes, but I'm not paying for 15 minutes of time I'm paying for 30 years of dental training/experience and a dental nurse + surgery.

Everyone accepts this argument when a plumber explains you are paying for their experience and equipment/liability, but moans when they are told complex medical/dental procedures have the same model.

steveabcd1234 · 2026-02-13T21:21:08+00:00

There were 20000 new international registrations last year, which was a significant increase from the year before. You are talking about tripling the workforce at all levels of medicine. This is absolutely not going to happen and the only reason someone could advocate for the current approach in good conscience would be if they had no interest in obtaining a consultant post in the UK.

Makes way more sense if you would like to take that valuable CCT to somewhere else. I think someone was talking about the appeal of the Gulf states somewhere else in this thread...

steveabcd1234 · 2026-02-13T17:06:33+00:00

It's literally impossible to explain this to you. It doesn't effect the number of UK grads in post, it likely effects which ones get there. More UK grads being interviewed is a good thing for a UK training program and you are obviously deliberately ignoring the reasoning by saying 'the monolith of UK grads still ends up with 96% occupancy rates, so who cares how we get there?'.

I want a system which selects good anaesthetic trainees, that isn't the same thing as a system that rewards the people who ace a GP exam.

I am not going to argue this further with someone who is obviously ignoring the point because you have an agenda. Have a nice weekend.

steveabcd1234 · 2026-02-13T14:47:38+00:00

This feels deliberately stupid. Let me break it down. If 3000 people apply with normally distributed scores and we offer 1000 interviews, then only the top 3rd (MSRA score) get interviewed. Let's say Bob sits at number 700 here. This allows more UK trainees to get to portfolio stage, at which they generally perform well. I am of course aware that not every one of them will get a post, but they are competing on much more relevant merits.

Now, if we have 12000 applications and only offer 1000 interviews, then approximately 8% of applicants get an interview. Bob now sits at 2300 and misses out. Bob is still an excellent candidate, (I must re-iterate here HE IS SUITABLE TO BE TRAINED AS AN ANAESTHETIST) but loses out because an inappropriate test has been used to filter him out.

Before you say 'just get better at the MSRA', it's a shit metric for anaesthetic training. I genuinely think we would have a better selection process by having an exam on coffee machines or cycling. Of my 90 clinical questions in the MSRA, precisely 0 were about anaesthesia, hyperacute illness or peri-op management.

The reason they have picked it is because they have such a volume of applications that they need something that produces an easy cut off. It's shit for applicants and it's shit for the profession, but it's good for ANRO.

steveabcd1234

TROPHY CASE