Hi °C | Lo °C We could discuss ad nauseam the public support, or otherwise, for this week's action by the British Medical Association. The fact is the Government has made a unilateral U-turn on pensions.
The doctors' stance has been taken not through greed, but through principle. You can't sell a house, exchange contracts, then tell the buyer you've removed the windows, doors and conservatory.
Many of today's younger doctors paid for tuition fees and living expenses, accruing up to £75,000 in debt before they even set foot on the wards as qualified doctors.
Quite often, medical students desperate to pursue their ambition relied on trainee professional loans to fund their university careers.
Banks fell over each other to bid for the business, in the certainty that their clients would be sure bets to make the repayments.
Yes, compared with the national average, GPs are well-paid. Wouldn't you pay someone well who had worked through medical school for five years, undertaken five further years of intensive postgraduate training, delivers good quality medical care to the patients they deal with and work in the knowledge that their actions or non-actions may cost patients their health, or their lives?
DR THOMAS GILLHAM
By e-mail
