Frankly, it is not much fun.

For me, several years removed from training, the stony bureaucracy and burdensome administration are astonishing. Modern shift patterns have broken teams where peer and consultant rapport made being a junior doctor survivable. Now, rather than judge juniors through a colleague who has taught them and seen them on the job we use anonymous comments from someone on a feedback form. This causes huge distress. The moral contract of medicine, of choosing to do a job out of care and love, has been fractured because of the unyielding training structures that senior doctors have bequeathed.

 

Margaret McCartney on the dismal and worsening state of postgraduate education and training in the UK. The title ‘Frankly, it is not much fun’ are her words, but the words that spring to my weary mind are those of William Blake: ‘A dog at the master’s gate, predicts the ruin of the state.’ And so it will come to pass.