NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE

In 2004, the UK's Labour government gave doctors a pay rise of around 35%, and allowed doctors to opt out of evening and weekend work.

Three doctors in my small town, in the UK, have very recently retired.

All of them are in their early fifties and all of them live in large expensive houses.



Yesterday I visited a patient in our local hospital.

All the doctors in the hospital looked as if they had just left school.

None of them looked British.

All the nurses looked harassed.



Increasingly it is difficult to see a 'full-time' doctor at a local surgery.

Across Britain, 10% of 'full-time' doctor positions are vacant.

Surgeries are finding it increasingly difficult to recruit 'locums' (temporary doctors).

Yet, Britain's top paid locum will earn almost £500,000 this year.

Why do so many doctors want to leave the profession?

1. They earn so much that they can afford to retire early.

2. They feel under pressure because of the increasing number of old people who are surviving into their nineties and who need a lot of care.

3. They feel under pressure because of the exodus of their colleagues.

4. Governments and administrators have given doctors a lot more paperwork.



The UK government is trying to solve the problem by recruiting more doctors from overseas.

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How Neoliberalism Reduces the Status of Skilled Doctors...