Junior doctors are being lured to Australia with job adverts promising A$240,000 (£127,600) salaries and 20 days off a month to “travel, swim and surf in the sun”.
In a reference to the popular autobiography and TV series This is Going to Hurt, which was written by Dr Adam Kay, a former junior doctor, the advert opens: “A&E Registrar sick of the NHS? This isn’t going to hurt.”
Applicants are encouraged to “escape the grind” with a working holiday in Australia where they would be required to carry out just 10 shifts a month.
Each shift in a private hospital would pay A$2,000 (£1,064), which, when added to sign-on and other bonuses of up to A$25,000, would put the applicant in the top 5 per cent of earners in Australia.
The job advert, by BluGibbon Medical Recruitment, says applicants must be fourth-year UK graduate doctors with accident and emergency (A&E) experience.
The equivalent baseline pay for a medic of this level in the UK is upwards of £40,000.
The advert was published in the British Medical Journal with a QR code allowing doctors to scan it and apply immediately.
It comes after a survey by the General Medical Council (GMC) found more than half of doctors who have left the UK are still working clinically abroad, with one in six going to Australia.
A poll by the British Medical Association (BMA) last year found a third of junior doctors were planning to move abroad in the next 12 months, with Australia the top choice.
The publication of the advert was criticised by medics, with Dr Kay calling it “depressing”.
In a tweet sharing the advert, he said: “It’s hard to say those figures don’t present a compelling argument. It all leads to a big question for the [Government]: if you don’t address doctors’ very reasonable pay concerns, alongside their conditions and wellbeing, guess where they’re going?”
Dr Mike Greenhalgh, BMA junior doctors committee deputy co-chair, said junior doctors see these adverts “almost on a daily basis”.
“Every junior doctor will have friends, colleagues or classmates who have already gone to Australia or New Zealand. Some initially plan to go for a year and end up staying. This is a huge loss to our already overstretched workforce,” he said.
It comes as junior doctors are locked in a pay dispute with the Government and demanding a 35 per cent pay rise to restore wages to 2008 levels. The BMA met with Steve Barclay, the Health Secretary, on Tuesday for “constructive” initial talks. The parties are expected to meet again soon.
Junior doctors have taken two rounds of strike action so far this year, with Dr Rob Laurenson, BMA junior doctors’ committee co-chair, confirming they were prepared to reballot members again to extend their mandate to the rest of the year.
Almost 200,000 NHS appointments and procedures were cancelled in April because of the 96-hour walk out by junior doctors.
Boutique A&E
The successful applicant would work in a “small private boutique emergency department” in Brisbane, Australia, according to the advert.
“Work 10x shifts per month [and] travel, swim and surf in the sun for 20x days!” the advert reads. “$240,000 annual salary package, 12 months commitment required, accommodation provided, $5,000 sign-on bonus.”
“Located in a large tertiary private hospital in Brisbane (a future Olympic City) in Queensland – the state with the Whitsunday islands, Great Barrier Reef and so many natural wonders to explore,” it adds.
“Major tourist beaches are dotted north and south including the Gold Coast and winter weather sits around 13 degrees and feels like a light summer day in the UK.”
Doctors would see between 30 and 50 patients per day, with waiting times in A&E average at 4 minutes per patient. “Yep, you read that right – 4 minutes,” it adds.
A spokesman for the BMJ said it features a “wide variety” of job adverts which are “legal, decent and truthful and comply with relevant standards”. They added it does not endorse the content of job adverts.
I don’t blame doctors for voting with their feet, they’re entitled to take a better deal if they find one. But 20 days off a month? How does that work?
Turns out when you promote private healthcare and allow wages to differ from one hospital to the next, you get higher wages thanks to competition.
I am shocked, shocked I tell you.
[deleted]
A friend of mine who just finished her PhD is going to Australia and her salary will increase to 3x what she’s on here for a very similar job
I’m curious if the people that go for it will end up in the middle of nowhere in a town of six people where you closest shop is a helicopter ride away.
So it’s agency work.
£1000 per shift for agency work isn’t that great for a doctor.
As a geologist, i can’t wait to leave this shit hole of a country. Professionals here are severely underpaid for the training and experience they have.
Utterly amazing. Why the hell would you stay in the UK?
This is all according to plan. Many or most of the junior doctors leave the UK, because why wouldn’t they. The NHS collapses without their work. Privatisation happens and then leave it to the health insurers who take over to sort it out. This is all 100% tory policy and not accidental.
Sounds like a great way for those junior doctors who enjoy overseas travel, have limited commitments within the uk and aim to accumulate some cash savings & career experience working in the medical profession within another continent to do so.
If they decide to return to the UK after a few years, many will be in a good position to buy a home outside of London without requiring a large mortgage and will be qualified for consultant roles or very close to this stage of their medical careers.
Good luck to them!
You don’t need to move to Australia, thou. I left the NHS and I tripled my wages just working privately with BUPA and doing consultations via app with Axxa Health
Not just doctors, engineers amongst many other professions are getting absolutely shafted in this country
I’m in Perth WA. Every other person working in the health service here is British. Even the unbelievably rude bi*ch receptionist at the local GP! I’m talking about you Prendiville Avenue Medical Centre!! 🙁
we brag to the world we are the 5th largest economy,
but the 12th largest economy brags less and pays more.
That’s £1k per shift, still only 10% what our MPs want to lobby the government and “consult”
It’s the same with marketing, 21,000 starting salary here or 60+ for the same position in Australia and the US. Employers have to adapt to the times at a certain point
Britain, the place where Australia trains its doctors
It’s funny on r/australia and r/australiapolitics there have been posts this year with people complaining about how doctors are underpaid.
What exactly do they mean by “lured”? It’s not a fishing competition, Australia’s not doing anything especially unusual. If the UK government doesn’t want to lose doctors, there’s an easy fix that all those doctors have been mentioning for a while now.
The UK is on such a downward spiral it’s a shame. I too will be moving to Australia and I’m not even sad, if anything I’m sad I must wait another couple of years before doing so.
As much as I love the UK and I love being British, living here and watching this nation become increasingly more shite as the days go by gets disheartening.
Take my advice and move overseas, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the USA, the Netherlands, Singapore, wherever, just get out the UK
I’m slightly different in that I was well-paid in the UK (>£100k) before I moved to Australia, but even then I added nearly 80% to my take home moving to the same role with the same company in Sydney. Same hours, same expectations, more paid leave, better healthcare. Sydney is possibly slightly higher CoL than London, but nowhere near 1.8x.
I expect that almost anyone with an in-demand job who can meet the points requirements for US, Canada, Australia, or New Zealand would be financially better off. It was a wrench to leave my family and friends in the UK, but my kids have great weather, a safe environment, a bigger house and garden, great education options…it’s been a big win for me.
Why any doctor/nurse would stay in the UK and get paid the same as a traffic warden while carrying six-figure university debt is completely beyond me.
just a quick note here, as an Australian.
These positions are for PRIVATE hospitals. not public.
we have 2 systems here in Australia, the Public system, which is like your NHS, but slightly better funded for the moment, and Private, which as the name suggests, is more American in that it is user pays ‘Insurance’ operated.
Doctors in the Private system get paid more than doctors in the Public sector.
I can guarantee these will be 12 hours shifts that do not finish when they should.
120 hours, still short of a 160 hour month (which is normally 200 hours, lets be real) for 260K in Brisbane which has pretty low cost of living compared to much of the UK is very, very good.
No one here is going to pay a junior doctor anywhere upwards of $100k.
Are doctors not being paid at least £130k after residency?
In BC Canada new doctors now get paid $300k to start. And that’s a socialized system.
My girlfriend is a doctor and we hang out with loads of doctors and the majority of them have plans to go to New Zealand or Australia and we’re considering it ourselves.
Don’t worry. The UK is now luring doctors, and other healthcare workers, from other countries over with salaries that only seem high when converted.
“lured”, as though being treated nicely and paid well is some kind of trap. No, this government just doesn’t know how to treat healthcare staff well…
Let the brain drain continue!
I need to get the fuck out of this country guys.
Its almost as if the UK is run by a neo-liberal government that is committed to worsening pay and conditions for workers in order to increase returns for shareholders and landlords.
Lol, “lured”, love the word choice. Like “they’re stealing our talent with good holidays and good pay!”, like Australia is the child catcher or piped piper or something.
Moved to Australia 3 years ago. Most I’ve ever been offered in the uk is £40k my total salary package in Australia is over £100k and I work 16 days a month
32 comments
Junior doctors are being lured to Australia with job adverts promising A$240,000 (£127,600) salaries and 20 days off a month to “travel, swim and surf in the sun”.
In a reference to the popular autobiography and TV series This is Going to Hurt, which was written by Dr Adam Kay, a former junior doctor, the advert opens: “A&E Registrar sick of the NHS? This isn’t going to hurt.”
Applicants are encouraged to “escape the grind” with a working holiday in Australia where they would be required to carry out just 10 shifts a month.
Each shift in a private hospital would pay A$2,000 (£1,064), which, when added to sign-on and other bonuses of up to A$25,000, would put the applicant in the top 5 per cent of earners in Australia.
The job advert, by BluGibbon Medical Recruitment, says applicants must be fourth-year UK graduate doctors with accident and emergency (A&E) experience.
The equivalent baseline pay for a medic of this level in the UK is upwards of £40,000.
The advert was published in the British Medical Journal with a QR code allowing doctors to scan it and apply immediately.
It comes after a survey by the General Medical Council (GMC) found more than half of doctors who have left the UK are still working clinically abroad, with one in six going to Australia.
A poll by the British Medical Association (BMA) last year found a third of junior doctors were planning to move abroad in the next 12 months, with Australia the top choice.
The publication of the advert was criticised by medics, with Dr Kay calling it “depressing”.
In a tweet sharing the advert, he said: “It’s hard to say those figures don’t present a compelling argument. It all leads to a big question for the [Government]: if you don’t address doctors’ very reasonable pay concerns, alongside their conditions and wellbeing, guess where they’re going?”
Dr Mike Greenhalgh, BMA junior doctors committee deputy co-chair, said junior doctors see these adverts “almost on a daily basis”.
“Every junior doctor will have friends, colleagues or classmates who have already gone to Australia or New Zealand. Some initially plan to go for a year and end up staying. This is a huge loss to our already overstretched workforce,” he said.
It comes as junior doctors are locked in a pay dispute with the Government and demanding a 35 per cent pay rise to restore wages to 2008 levels. The BMA met with Steve Barclay, the Health Secretary, on Tuesday for “constructive” initial talks. The parties are expected to meet again soon.
Junior doctors have taken two rounds of strike action so far this year, with Dr Rob Laurenson, BMA junior doctors’ committee co-chair, confirming they were prepared to reballot members again to extend their mandate to the rest of the year.
Almost 200,000 NHS appointments and procedures were cancelled in April because of the 96-hour walk out by junior doctors.
Boutique A&E
The successful applicant would work in a “small private boutique emergency department” in Brisbane, Australia, according to the advert.
“Work 10x shifts per month [and] travel, swim and surf in the sun for 20x days!” the advert reads. “$240,000 annual salary package, 12 months commitment required, accommodation provided, $5,000 sign-on bonus.”
“Located in a large tertiary private hospital in Brisbane (a future Olympic City) in Queensland – the state with the Whitsunday islands, Great Barrier Reef and so many natural wonders to explore,” it adds.
“Major tourist beaches are dotted north and south including the Gold Coast and winter weather sits around 13 degrees and feels like a light summer day in the UK.”
Doctors would see between 30 and 50 patients per day, with waiting times in A&E average at 4 minutes per patient. “Yep, you read that right – 4 minutes,” it adds.
A spokesman for the BMJ said it features a “wide variety” of job adverts which are “legal, decent and truthful and comply with relevant standards”. They added it does not endorse the content of job adverts.
I don’t blame doctors for voting with their feet, they’re entitled to take a better deal if they find one. But 20 days off a month? How does that work?
Turns out when you promote private healthcare and allow wages to differ from one hospital to the next, you get higher wages thanks to competition.
I am shocked, shocked I tell you.
[deleted]
A friend of mine who just finished her PhD is going to Australia and her salary will increase to 3x what she’s on here for a very similar job
I’m curious if the people that go for it will end up in the middle of nowhere in a town of six people where you closest shop is a helicopter ride away.
So it’s agency work.
£1000 per shift for agency work isn’t that great for a doctor.
As a geologist, i can’t wait to leave this shit hole of a country. Professionals here are severely underpaid for the training and experience they have.
Utterly amazing. Why the hell would you stay in the UK?
This is all according to plan. Many or most of the junior doctors leave the UK, because why wouldn’t they. The NHS collapses without their work. Privatisation happens and then leave it to the health insurers who take over to sort it out. This is all 100% tory policy and not accidental.
Sounds like a great way for those junior doctors who enjoy overseas travel, have limited commitments within the uk and aim to accumulate some cash savings & career experience working in the medical profession within another continent to do so.
If they decide to return to the UK after a few years, many will be in a good position to buy a home outside of London without requiring a large mortgage and will be qualified for consultant roles or very close to this stage of their medical careers.
Good luck to them!
You don’t need to move to Australia, thou. I left the NHS and I tripled my wages just working privately with BUPA and doing consultations via app with Axxa Health
Not just doctors, engineers amongst many other professions are getting absolutely shafted in this country
I’m in Perth WA. Every other person working in the health service here is British. Even the unbelievably rude bi*ch receptionist at the local GP! I’m talking about you Prendiville Avenue Medical Centre!! 🙁
we brag to the world we are the 5th largest economy,
but the 12th largest economy brags less and pays more.
That’s £1k per shift, still only 10% what our MPs want to lobby the government and “consult”
It’s the same with marketing, 21,000 starting salary here or 60+ for the same position in Australia and the US. Employers have to adapt to the times at a certain point
Britain, the place where Australia trains its doctors
It’s funny on r/australia and r/australiapolitics there have been posts this year with people complaining about how doctors are underpaid.
What exactly do they mean by “lured”? It’s not a fishing competition, Australia’s not doing anything especially unusual. If the UK government doesn’t want to lose doctors, there’s an easy fix that all those doctors have been mentioning for a while now.
The UK is on such a downward spiral it’s a shame. I too will be moving to Australia and I’m not even sad, if anything I’m sad I must wait another couple of years before doing so.
As much as I love the UK and I love being British, living here and watching this nation become increasingly more shite as the days go by gets disheartening.
Take my advice and move overseas, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the USA, the Netherlands, Singapore, wherever, just get out the UK
I’m slightly different in that I was well-paid in the UK (>£100k) before I moved to Australia, but even then I added nearly 80% to my take home moving to the same role with the same company in Sydney. Same hours, same expectations, more paid leave, better healthcare. Sydney is possibly slightly higher CoL than London, but nowhere near 1.8x.
I expect that almost anyone with an in-demand job who can meet the points requirements for US, Canada, Australia, or New Zealand would be financially better off. It was a wrench to leave my family and friends in the UK, but my kids have great weather, a safe environment, a bigger house and garden, great education options…it’s been a big win for me.
Why any doctor/nurse would stay in the UK and get paid the same as a traffic warden while carrying six-figure university debt is completely beyond me.
just a quick note here, as an Australian.
These positions are for PRIVATE hospitals. not public.
we have 2 systems here in Australia, the Public system, which is like your NHS, but slightly better funded for the moment, and Private, which as the name suggests, is more American in that it is user pays ‘Insurance’ operated.
Doctors in the Private system get paid more than doctors in the Public sector.
I can guarantee these will be 12 hours shifts that do not finish when they should.
120 hours, still short of a 160 hour month (which is normally 200 hours, lets be real) for 260K in Brisbane which has pretty low cost of living compared to much of the UK is very, very good.
>job adverts promising A$240,000
[Yeah, I’m in Australia and BluGibbon Medical Recruitment are fucking lying to you.](https://au.talent.com/salary?job=Doctor#:~:text=The%20average%20doctor%20salary%20in,up%20to%20%24234%2C000%20per%20year.)
No one here is going to pay a junior doctor anywhere upwards of $100k.
Are doctors not being paid at least £130k after residency?
In BC Canada new doctors now get paid $300k to start. And that’s a socialized system.
My girlfriend is a doctor and we hang out with loads of doctors and the majority of them have plans to go to New Zealand or Australia and we’re considering it ourselves.
Don’t worry. The UK is now luring doctors, and other healthcare workers, from other countries over with salaries that only seem high when converted.
“lured”, as though being treated nicely and paid well is some kind of trap. No, this government just doesn’t know how to treat healthcare staff well…
Let the brain drain continue!
I need to get the fuck out of this country guys.
Its almost as if the UK is run by a neo-liberal government that is committed to worsening pay and conditions for workers in order to increase returns for shareholders and landlords.
Lol, “lured”, love the word choice. Like “they’re stealing our talent with good holidays and good pay!”, like Australia is the child catcher or piped piper or something.
Moved to Australia 3 years ago. Most I’ve ever been offered in the uk is £40k my total salary package in Australia is over £100k and I work 16 days a month