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Junior doctors' pay deal

Devon House Adult Psychotherapy Service, Mindelsohn Way, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2QR

Sir: From December 2000, additional duty hours will be replaced by a banding system based on the time spent ‘actually working’ on call. Psychiatry trainees will be paid significantly less than their colleagues in other specialities, who have shorter rest periods. While to an extent this is justified, the size of the pay differential is alarming and the higher level of stress experienced by psychiatrists (Dreary et al, 1996) is not recognised.

A house officer choosing a career may be faced with either a pay cut of £48 per year to take up psychiatry or a raise of £6413 per year to do general medicine. With the introduction of tuition fees, the British Medical Association estimates that the debts of final year medical students will rise from an average of £7738 in 1998 (Brooks, 1998) to up to £25 000 (British Medical Association, 1997). This will have grave implications for recruitment to psychiatry. The College needs to address this issue if it wants to attract doctors into our speciality.

References

BRITISH MEDICAL ASSOCIATION (1997) Briefing. British Medical Journal, 315, 7107.

BROOKS, A. (1998) Medicine may become ‘domain of the privileged’. British Medical Journal, 317, 558.[Free Full Text]

DREARY, I. H., BLENKIN, H., AGIUS, R., et al (1996) Models of job-related stress and personal achievement among consultant doctors. British Journal of Psychology, 87, 3-29.

This Article Full Text (PDF) Submit an eLetter Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Roots, P. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Roots, P.