British Doctors: Whatever You Do, Don't Become a Doctor!

Wait, I thought socialized medicine was going to make our world into a Utopia where everything works perfectly, and nobody ever gets sick or dies. Hmm.

Most British doctors would no longer recommend a career in medicine according to a recent poll.

The online survey on morale and National Health Service (NHS) reform, conducted by the medical information service Medix for Hospital Doctor, an online magazine, was completed by over 1,400 GPs and hospital doctors.

The results showed that:

-- Only 2 per cent of doctors rated their morale as "excellent".
-- 54 per cent rated their morale as "poor" or "terrible".
-- 69 per cent said morale had fallen in the last year.
-- 69 per cent said they would not recommend a career in medicine.
-- 47 per cent said they were unhappy with the government's plan to centralize hospitals and move services into the community.
-- 63 per cent viewed changes in workload as damaging to morale.

Many doctors said government targets and reforms were the main cause of their despondency.

Nearly half of the doctors in the survey were very critical of the new Medical Training Application Service (MTAS) and blamed it for the low morale among junior hospital doctors.

One respondent said that the new scheme was destroying doctors' self-governance and "deprofessionalizing medicine". The criteria for selection are centrally determined, giving doctors little freedom to select and interview the candidates they would choose themselves.

Another doctor responded saying that MTAS was "an embarrassment" to the government and to the royal colleges.

Co-founder of pressure group Remedy UK, Dr Matt Jameson Evans, told Hospital Doctor magazine:

"We were told to suspend our disbelief about MTAS and we have since lost all confidence, and this will not be restored by the latest proposals of the review committee."

"The results of this survey show how demoralised so many doctors are feeling and how they believe constant government reforms and targets are taking them further away from their initial vocation - to treat patients."

"The shambolic handling of MTAS has done untold damage to doctors' morale and the government needs to take note and listen and engage with doctors' leaders. A medical workforce that feels so downbeat is not good news for the NHS or patients."