This is how fucked things are

I've written before about how the government is in the process of fucking junior doctors. It's not a topic that instantly attracts support from your average man on the street/taxi driver? I mean who really cares about whether or not a bunch of well-paid posh kids get their ideal job. I probably wouldn't care if I wasn't directly affected.

The past few months have seen the allocation system for junior doctors training positions degenerate into anarchy. The MTAS (medical training application service) website has been shut down when it became apparent that it had less security than your average public park and that it was possible to get in and mess about with other peoples application forms. That is a seperate issue from the page that gave you all the applicants demographic information in one handy spread sheet. Just the basics; name, address, criminal convictions, who they prefer to fuck and what god they support. Nothing that matters. Prejudice made easy.

I might be a paranoid conspiracy theory freak but I think that Nu Labour are trying to break the back of the medical political lobby so that they are unopposed in their attempt to fuck over the NHS. Nu Labour seem to have an anti-intelligence agenda and they don't seem to like anyone who is 'too clever' (look how they sucked up to Noel Gallagher during the cool britannia era). Nu Labour don't like people who think. They don't want people who ask questions. Remember Iraq.

In some ways they have succeded. Morale amongst junior doctors is now at rock bottom. In my hospital we have about 25 SHOs (senior house officers - doctors with between 2 and 7 years of experience). Only 5 have jobs in hospital medicine while 2 have been offered GP training jobs. Around 18 good doctors do not have jobs for August. These doctors help the hospital meet waiting list targets. They do investigations for cardiology, gastroenterology and respiratory medicine. They assess people for cancer and heart disease.

In August their jobs will not exist and GP trainees will be there instead. GP trainees are generally good but they don't have the special skills needed to do echocardiograms, endoscopies and bronchoscopies and they will not have the time to learn how to do them during their 4 month placements. Most of these doctors are talking of 'fucking off' to New Zealand or elsewhere.

The consultants I work for are great but in many ways this problem has caught them sleeping. They have worked to develop a good service for years and they have relied on experienced SHOs to help them. They are already cutting clinics for cancer services and cardiology.

Now, I'm one of the lucky ones. I've already been offered a good job. A training job. The computer has smiled upon me and decided that I am worth some continued educational investment. I will take this job if I do not get offered another one. The good job is a couple of hundred miles away in a city I have never been to. It's in a place where I don't know anyone. I don't know exactly where the job is yet, I just know it exists and that it is mine. I don't know what I'll be doing but I'll do it. I need to get paid. I have debts and I like CDs and comic books. I will make new friends and I'll phone my family regularly. I'll work hard and do my best and try my hardest to get a job closer to home next year. I can't complain.

I have a good job while many of my more experienced colleagues are fucked.

The government wants doctors to be stupid. It wants medical technicians who will tick boxes. It does not want us to think for ourselves. Medical research is now frowned upon. Guidelines are produced by the government to tell us the best way to treat our patients. Guidelines tell us which drugs are the best value for money. Pharmaceutical companies only have to lobby in one place nowadays......