----- Original Message -----
From: "Andrew Tindall" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2001 9:40 AM
Subject: Re: Ocupational Prestige of Physiotherapy
I don't think physio's are on their own. Speaking as a podiatrist, what I
read could have been written about my profession.
A lot of the problem may be that people do not progress into their areas of
interest. There is a lot of 'routine boring stuff' in most jobs and people
who work in a department (such as many on the NHS)get given the stuff others
don't want to which is totally demoralising. Maybe a person's particular
area of interest is one that is already covered by one or two others and it
is hard to get a foot in. If what is true in podiatry is true in
physiotherapy, then those people already in can sometimes be resentful of
new people muscling in.
Some may say, 'well why don't you move?'. But if a person is settled in an
area with family, husband/wife, children, nice house and little prospect of
an equally nice one if they move etc, etc then that will prevent such a
move.
Interestingly, I was sitting in on and orthopaedic surgeons outpatient
clinic the other week, and he said he would not advise his friends to enter
the medical profession. Now most of us would look up to a surgeon in many
ways, but he said that he takes too much grief for the little he is on.
When you consider that the top consultant at the hospital I work at can look
to getting about £60,000 and often be on call, dealing with all the usual
difficult patients, a string of unknowledgeable people asking him for
inappropriate treatments, a 3 hour wait for X-Rays on a routine basis,
shortage of support staff, managers who have just come off a few years uni
course in 'how to manage nothing' making totally stupid decisions over their
head, and a whole tier of executive committee members earning more (the
chief executive will probably be on about £80 - 90,000 who never have to
work Christmas, weekends, bank holidays, who never miss their wedding
anniversary, kids birthday parties, whose whole reputation and career
is not on the line with every patient they see, in fact they never see
patients, who are not the ones who can be the source of life and death to
some people, and will never be sued or sacked, it is quite easy to see why
people are dispondant.
Yours rambling on and on
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
I agree, but you can always move to private practice!
Also I think you are way off the mark of the the earnings of
consultants.......they earn considerably more than you think.......like
unmentioned performance enhancements......etc.
regards,
Paul
Paul Gurnett MCSP. SRP.
Chartered Physiotherapist. (OCPPP)
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