It’s been quite a week for the grandees of my profession.
First they’ve been sharing their views on why today’s resident doctors shouldn’t strike and then telling us why we should return to limiting the number of women who should go into medicine.
It’s embarrassing belonging to the same professional generation as those recently sharing these views. I started medical school in 1974 in Edinburgh and qualified in 1979, so I’ve been a doctor for 46 years this year, although I retired from my full-time job as an academic psychiatrist in 2013. Professor Sikora, who has been a doctor for more than 50 years told the Telegraph he was appalled at doctors striking. The sub-heading of the piece is Money buys you neither love or happiness. I cannot tell if that is a direct quote as the rest is behind a paywall. However, I can tell you that when you are poor, money helps.
I very much doubt that I would have gone to medical school today. I come from a working-class family. No-one had been near a university or had ever wanted to. My father worked repairing seaside amusements, and my mother in a radio factory. It was a real step up when she got the job at the Coop greengrocers counter. She always borrowed to get through the week. Everything in the house was bought on tick. I had a full grant for every year except my first, when my parents had to contribute £50, and my fees were all paid. I lived frugally but well. Better than friends whose wealthy parents didn’t fulfil their parental contribution. After I left university, having found house jobs (FY1 now) near Edinburgh, I moved down to England. I had low-cost hospital accommodation when I needed it, hot meals at night, free parking, and no debt. We (I was married by then) were able to get a mortgage immediately, although my ex-husband’s salary took precedence. I bought my own home without difficulty when we divorced. I worked long hours, and it was tough but as a consultant I had great secretarial support. I suspect that has all gone now too, though managers seem to still have PAs?
I met those with views about women in medicine like Dr Meirion Thomas, during my career. I think I was supposed to feel grateful that at least I had been allowed to graduate in the first place, unlike the Edinburgh Seven, heroines of my alma mater, who were unable to, despite out-performing the men. The consultant orthopaedic surgeon in Falkirk Royal Infirmary would not speak directly to me because I was a woman. All instructions were relayed via the ward sister. The postgraduate tutor in the general hospital where I became a consultant expressed similar views to our medical students even in the 1990s.
There were times I thought about emigrating (to Canada) but I stayed. There was a cohort of us in my generation from the working class, who, after the second world war, benefited from free first-class education from secondary school through university. Despite the valiant efforts of those trying to widen access only 5% of those entering medical school still come from the lowest socioeconomic group. If I was making that journey today, I personally could not have coped with having to work throughout my degree, as many now do, nor the huge amount of debt afterwards. We also know the NHS has never been a good employer. I not only treated many employees, some episodes of my own severe depression were triggered by my interactions with management. I gave evidence against one Chief Executive at an inquiry into his behaviour, which didn’t help my career at the time. Seeing resident doctors being asked to pay for their accommodation when on-call (see recently on social media) suggests to me that concern for their welfare remains low in many places.
I never went on strike during my career, because I never needed to, but if I were working today as a resident doctor, I have no doubt that I would. I would also have considered emigrating to anywhere that would value my skills and treat me with more respect – and pay me better. If there are now more women doctors than men, so be it. Get more men to apply to medical school. When and if women have children is up to them. The NHS must change to support them. They are the future, and if they drop out, leave medicine, or leave the country, they will be gone. We cannot have dinosaurs still telling them they shouldn’t be here.
I support striking doctors unreservedly.
Professor Linda Gask
Patching the Soul 
Excellent post, Linda, and you had me at the title – brilliant!