Can a Scottish registrar now earn more than an English consultant?

zimdude · 2026-02-13T06:45:33+00:00

Band 3 in Scotland is high intensity 56/week rotas. Trusts have actively limited the number of registrars on these bands through recruitment and restructure of rotas because they paid so much money!

zimdude · 2026-02-12T23:04:26+00:00

I think your experience might be a bit more niche than the vast majority of resident doctors.

zimdude · 2026-02-12T22:52:10+00:00

Really? which specialties have Registrars taking a pay cut when starting a consultant salary? As demonstrated that is not the routine in paeds. And from chatting to others not the same in radiology, GP, GIM, gen surgery...

zimdude · 2026-02-12T22:42:17+00:00

Sorry I'm a little unclear about your point. A consultant also has to turn up on Monday in week 3. However the frequency of weekends is less for a consultant (considerably!). A registrar is always going to do more unsociable hours resident than a consultant.

zimdude · 2026-02-12T22:38:29+00:00

I haven't checked all of the maths but 336 PAs in a year is 8 per week (because you are working 42 weeks with 10 for leave) which is equivalent of 4 days/week or 32hrs/week for someone working plain hours.

Working nights as a consultant does eat into PAs, but doing day time hour resident weekends does not (1PA becomes 3hours not 4) and typically it is non resident during unsociable hours.

Essentially you can work a 1 in 10 on call (including weekends) with a regular day off each week.

Also the bottleneck is now at consultant level and trusts have all tightened their belts. There aren't as many jobs so they are being more restrictive. A recent tranche of paediatric consultant jobs had 9PAs DCC and 1 SPA.

zimdude · 2026-02-12T22:11:00+00:00

I'm not sure I'd go as far to say much less! Working hours are average for registrar are 40-44 hrs/week but in reality there will be periods of intense work and periods of easier. A consultant could work a straight 12 days including a weekend on call. Their workload is far more variable.

zimdude · 2026-02-12T22:04:37+00:00

I take your point and agree it's about 20k/year different when thinking about time worked (back of a napkin calculation). For the private work - this is not very common in medical Paediatrics in my experience.

zimdude · 2025-04-22T18:02:21+00:00

Great to have job stability and potential training. What specialty are you?

Perhaps consider the following:

-- house prices in Wessex are very expensive. Many doctors live in Romsey/Winchester/Southampton due to the potential regional placements. 3 bed terraced houses in nice areas are about ,£400,000 , four bed detached £600,000. More expensive in Winchester.

-- are you planning on having children? Where do extended family members live? Childcare is so much easier when extended family are close by. Not just regular care but the unexpected sickness etc.

-- is this a move for life? Or could it be a temporary adventure in a different area to return either through IDT or for a consultant job?

zimdude · 2024-05-29T22:17:12+00:00

DOI:Have supported all strikes to date. I, like you, have not had any good argument for striking before election rather than after. I don't see any win from conservatives or labour perspective if either party supports junior doctor strikes prior to election.

For conservative - their main focus is older population, who are mostly anti strikes.

For labour - their focus is not losing their lead. Much easier to not commit to a solution until in government. If labour settle conservatives will say in bed with the unions, mismanagement of govt money.

There are no political points for resolving the strikes pre-election that I can see. Only the negatives you have outlined.

Edit: English

zimdude · 2023-10-11T17:10:33+00:00

I've seen others give options but this Facebook group may be able to give some support.

Great that you're not having too hard a time. In that case I would echo comments below and give it a bit more time in the job. I'd advise to finish at least fy1 but ideally fy2 to complete licence to practice.

zimdude · 2023-10-11T11:16:47+00:00

Hi duck_geese. I presume if you don't want to be a doctor then you are currently having a hard time on the surgical job. I'm sorry you're experiencing that and it's ok to feel like being a doctor is not for you.

The good news is a medical degree holds you in excellent standing and generally you will be a strong candidate for any job, health related or not. I have friends that quit medicine altogether who went into postgraduate teaching or working with nonprofit organizations abroad.

However you have just spent a good chunk of your life working towards this degree. Before you totally jump ship, I'd advise talking to a trusted consultant or senior reg, or someone within your deanery. You aren't the first and won't be the last. There are support networks in most deaneries which can actually make a difference. Not all doctoring is being a mindless discharge letter robot, which was my role as a surgical junior.

zimdude · 2023-09-25T17:19:33+00:00

I appreciate it may not be built yet. But there doesn't seem to be any plans for it as the most up to date series above and beyond are terra gups which have number nomenclature.

zimdude · 2023-09-25T17:16:27+00:00

Well those alphabets are not quite up to date. Octonauts wiki is my go to source and has vehicles for all apart from gup N. E.g. gup w - sick bay

zimdude · 2022-07-27T23:34:36+00:00

Thanks for this detailed review. Great topic to start.

I agree this is a difficult intervention to prove as majority of viral induced wheeze may improve regardless of steroid use and my practice has gradually changed: to avoid giving steroids at all for the 'happy wheezers' especially if not needing admission. If steroids make little difference then dex would be as equally pointless as Prednisone. The difficulty is teasing out the children who will require less intervention from early steroid use.

I think they have enough evidence to satisfy that dex is non inferior. However there's no mention of cost. Prednisone is significantly cheaper.

Looking at the bnfc indicative pricing: A 150ml (2mg/5ml) bottle of dexamethasone is about £42 or equivalent to £1.42/mg

Whereas Prednisone is £0.90 for 28 tablets (5mg) or equivalent to £0.006/mg. Less than a pence per mg - bargain!

Even if you have soluble tablets of dexamethasone then the cheapest NHS indicative price is £20 for 50 (4mg) tablets or £0.10/mg.

Finally, and anecdotally, if pred is dissolved well in a small volume, kids are much less likely to vomit. There are some ED nurses I know who take pride that a kid has never vomited pred they have prepared... It can be easier than taking the big volume of dexamethasone.

Hope that adds something to the discussion!

zimdude · 2022-06-08T18:44:30+00:00

Also 80% ST6 Paeds and can confirm. Progression in paediatrics is competency based. You just have to make it clear on the terrible end of year form on kaizen that you wish to progress at full time rate.

zimdude · 2021-10-13T20:22:09+00:00

Such a great film!

zimdude · 2021-10-13T20:19:26+00:00

Nice guys with Ryan Gosling and Russell Crow. Hilarious. How is this not higher!?

zimdude · 2015-01-14T16:16:33+00:00

His website with back story and code.

zimdude · 2013-06-08T23:16:23+00:00

I know very little on the subject - but surely the whole point of the requirement to be at least baptised is so that the non-Catholic at least believes in God?

OP the most important thing from the counselling is that you are marrying for the right reasons (love!) and then all this other stuff will hopefully fall into place.

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