I’m a doctor working in the UK who has also worked in Australia and the US.
In Australia I was so surprised by the attitude of the general public towards me, often telling me I ‘should be paid more’. This is compared with the UK where doctors are often vilified, disrespected and told they are ‘greedy’ as they earn more than the UK average.
In the US doctors’ skills are also highly valued and they earn probably 5x the US average. The consequence is that a lot of doctors are planning on taking their skills elsewhere. I for one will not be sticking around as a Consultant.
Does the UK have a general culture of bringing others down/not wanting people to earn highly?
13 comments
Who vilifies doctors?
> This is compared with the UK where doctors are often vilified, disrespected and told they are ‘greedy’ as they earn more than the UK average.
By who?
The recent pandemic really polarised public opinion on this – largely in favour of medical workers earning more / being appropriately appreciated.
Nobody vilifies doctors, people just think they shouldn’t earn so much when nurses earn so little
The UK (and also UK reddit, arguably the only time reddit aligns with the real world) definitely has a crabs in a bucket mentality, where folk hate to see someone succeed. Just look at how the term ‘middle class’ is used as an insult.
The thing is though, if you stop interacting with folk with that attitude and hang around with your income peers the attitude reverses. It switches from “how dare you make money” to “how can you make more money” and it’s much more inclusive.
Pretty sure you’re talking nonsense there, I’ve never met anyone who’s called doctors greedy
>compared with the UK where doctors are often vilified, disrespected and told they are ‘greedy’ as they earn more than the UK average.
I have never seen or heard this, far from it, I think most people know junior doctors are paid abysmally.
People don’t dislike GPs-in-general just because they make loads of money. They dislike them for other reasons, too.
>This is compared with the UK where doctors are often vilified, disrespected and told they are ‘greedy’ as they earn more than the UK average.
Can’t tell if you’re being serious here or trolling.
The NHS and doctors are often highly praised in the UK. Almost to religious levels. People understand and deeply appreciate the NHS and what people who work within it go through. See for example how much the government is criticised routinely for not giving enough resources to doctors and nurses and the NHS in general. That’s not a sign of institutionalised hatred towards doctors. It’s a sign people disagree with the government, want better services from the NHS, and want NHS workers (doctors included) to be paid and treated better.
You hear plenty of news stories of bankers being greedy and earning too much in the press. *Maybe* you can make an argument for that. MPs will call out the large salaries of bankers. But doctors? Nah. Really I don’t understand where this take is coming from.
I mean, maybe, you have some isolated experiences but if you’re extrapolating some wholesale dislike of doctors based on limited data that can’t reflect well on you. Plus what makes you think you won’t get the occasional barbed criticism in the in US or Australia? Or would it not matter because you’re getting paid 5x the wage?
When you say *doctors are often vilified* – do you mean the general public has told YOU you are greedy and should be paid less?
Except insofar as there was controversy over the recent junior doctors’ strike, I have to say I have never heard this opinion about UK doctors IRL.
In general, people absolutely love the NHS and its staff here.
The only criticisms of UK doctors’ salaries you are likely to get are online, and I don’t think they are representative of real UK people.
I’ve never met anyone who didn’t think doctors were underpaid.
Other people have already addressed the point that doctors being vilified isn’t something we really recognise. Perhaps you’ve just been unlucky and had a couple of bad experiences? But regarding this:
>Does the UK have a general culture of bringing others down/not wanting people to earn highly?
The UK doesn’t like anyone who brags or gets “too big for their boots”. Our press has historically been known to build someone up only to then take delight in knocking them down.
But be humble and don’t try and use your wealth to lord it over others and people will usually be pleased for you unless they’re the jealous type.
> This is compared with the UK where doctors are often vilified, disrespected and told they are ‘greedy’ as they earn more than the UK average.
If you’ve had people tell you this then I think you’ve been mixing with dickheads as most people highly appreciate the work doctors do.
People in the UK confuse what GPs are paid by the government, under contract to provide services, with actual salary. It’s no different from assuming that a plumber who charges £100 an hour earns that 40 hours a week every week of the year whilst forgetting about the unproductive time, holiday, sick pay, van, tools etc that have to come out of that £100.
The average GP practice receives around £136 per patient per year from the NHS. Out of that they have to pay salaried staff including salaried GPs, nurses and administrators, usual business overheads, insurance, staff pension, etc.
A salaried GP earns £60-90k.
A partner GP makes in profit whatever is left over after everyone else is paid.
The comparatively few GPs earning over £200k (one at £700k has been reported) will be running large, possibly multi-site practices, providing a lot of services using nurses and other healthcare professionals, possibly having a pharmacy/dispensing income, and in general running a successful business as well as being a GP.