What A Cheek!

[Molsey]

hello all \nmm adventurers, sorry if i talk crap now you'll have to forgive me for being a little tipsy as i've just had the last exam of my degree (MEng masters in Medical Egineering from QMUL in case you're intereted). i feel little cheeky posting this, but i dont know where esle to turn.

i want some real honest, gritty, down to earth and no-bullshit advice.

i have recently secured a place at medical school on one of the highly competitive GEP programmes at Barts hospital. i wanted to ask you seasoned veterans a few questions.

1. are the FY 1 and 2 periods REALLY as bad as 'they' say? is there anything i could do to prepare? any advice for me at med school? when i'm on clinical placements, will the doctors be nice to me and give me lots of help and work to do or do i have to find work for myself? any help is gratefully recieved.

2. i am thinking about clinical oncology as a career choice. does anyone know what kind of working life this entails? hours/money/profesional advancements/stress etc.... give me any bias you want, it cant be helped can it.

3. what is the money really like in FY 1 and 2? are the NHS website figures correct? 30k in 1st year and 39k in 2nd year roughly??? dont think less of me, but money matters. i really wanna be able to afford a mortgage with my girlfriend.

any other (random) advice is gratefully received.

thanks a bunch
Jamal

[sefkhet]

30k in 1st year and 39k in 2nd year roughly???

That sounds very, very high to me.

So far as I know, the basic FY1 salary for this year is around £24,000 and the basic FY2 salary is only a very little bit higher than that.

I'm a lowly first year medical student and therefore not actually getting paid anything at all, so somebody please correct me if I'm wrong!

[!PsyChirurgus!]

Found this NHS Webpage: NHS Careers

[James]

1. are the FY 1 and 2 periods REALLY as bad as 'they' say? is there anything i could do to prepare? any advice for me at med school? when i'm on clinical placements, will the doctors be nice to me and give me lots of help and work to do or do i have to find work for myself? any help is gratefully recieved.

2. i am thinking about clinical oncology as a career choice. does anyone know what kind of working life this entails? hours/money/profesional advancements/stress etc.... give me any bias you want, it cant be helped can it.

3. what is the money really like in FY 1 and 2? are the NHS website figures correct? 30k in 1st year and 39k in 2nd year roughly??? dont think less of me, but money matters. i really wanna be able to afford a mortgage with my girlfriend.

any other (random) advice is gratefully received.

thanks a bunch
Jamal

1. That depends on 'what they say'. In general you are a 'dogs body' as an F1/F2 doing lots of fairly mindless jobs mixed in with episodes of sheer terror as you manage sick patients. The hours were also pretty bad, but this is likely to have changed by the time you get there. In general there is great comoradary in F1/F2 years which can be amazing and will get you through some of the bad times.

A lot of working at med school is self-directed and you need to have the motivation to hit the books yourself. Once you are in the clinical years you will find the 'spoon feeding' stops very quickly. The attitude doctors show you all depends on how motivated and keen you are. If you turn up wanting to learn and having already read a little around the subject you should be fine. Whereas if you turn up and 'expect' to be taught, then you won't get far.

2. Clinical oncology is a sub-specialty of medicine dealing with cancer and you deal with radiotherapy and chemotherapy (unlike medical oncologists who tend just to do chemo and be more academic). Competition is reasonable but not as bad as surgery or cardiology. You will need to do a medical SHO (CT1 or ST1) rotation and get MRCP, then you can apply for registrar (ST3) jobs in clin onc.

3. By the time you do F1/F2 there is a good chance you will be unbanded. You have lost free accomodation already and the government is doing its best to refuse all pay increases to doctors. Think 25K ish for both years.

[Gizmo says -]

i'm looking forward to em. it would beat all this monkeying around in the dark on the course at the moment whilst trying to pay a mortgage.

bring on FY1! at least me working 'ours per week will be reduced!

[BabyDoc06]

£25,000 for f1?

Basic pay of £21,000 ish, then no banding + loss of accommodation (£400 per month, ~£5000 per year)

=

a lot less than £21,000.... please correct if i'm wrong, which i'm sure i am...

[piccles]

Well im not sure about most other people but the pay rates seem to vary quite considerably - I just contacted my hospital and I was told my pay for next yr is going to be approx £31,000 - so absolutly nothing to complain about except that hospital accommodation is going to cost £110 wk or so i am told. Whereas one of my friends who is getting basic wage 22,000.

[Philippa*]

presumably there will be a london allowance as well for the F1 and F2 posts.......

[Singh.Simran]

The wage issue is because on current/past bandings the higher numbers aren't unreasonable - average 1.4x i think.

However with EWTD you dont do extra hours so don't do extra hours. So you're on basic.

I don't think it's fair to minus accomodation (other jobs don't get it), it's a reasonable salary for the average person and considering the career prospects it's good, but not seen as enough renumeration considering 5/6 years and a lot of debt.

[Hughman]

Basic salary is for 40 hours as i understand it, so you have the opportunity to work another 8 hours, and that's likely to be at a higher rate. So I was under the impression as a first year your salary does rise close to 30K basic, before tax and accommodation.