Junior doctors: your comments

Junior doctors are warning that patient care could suffer as a result of NHS reforms. As their annual conference takes place, there are concerns about changes to training.

BBC News website readers have been sending in their reaction. You can read a selection below.

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Your comments and experiences:

I am about to start work as a junior doctor, and have been informed by my trust that I will have to rent a room in the hospital. Last year this room would have been free of charge yet there has been no increase in my pay. The reasons junior doctors require accommodation on-site are the long, antisocial hours and on-call commitments that make it impractical to live long distances away. After six years of tuition fees and student loans, my debt stands at over £45,000, yet I am effectively taking a massive pay-cut on my starting salary.
Gareth Chapman, Oxford

It seems to me, as a junior doctor, that the government are attempting to de-value the role of doctors. Why increase the number of medical graduates yet not the number of jobs? Is it to introduce competition that will mean we have to accept poor salaries and training posts?
Simon, Liverpool

As a first year junior doctor, I can say that there is little respect for us and the job we do. Hospitals treat us very poorly, forcing anti-social hours on us with little chance for complaint. While I like the patient interaction, the pluses do not make up for the lows.
Vimal Vyas, London

Whilst I sympathise there are fewer posts, I disagree that junior doctors should be consultants after 11 years. Their hours are shorter now, when my husband qualified he used to work far longer hours. Doctors were dedicated then. As for free accommodation, student nurses have always had to pay so why shouldn't doctors?
L K A, UK

I'm a medical student set to graduate in two years and I'm really disappointed and worried by the medical careers overhaul. They are removing our banding pay on top of our free accommodation. Although it is not a career I entered for financial rewards, a salary above the national average for a graduate is desirable. Financial targets are being put before patient care.
Dan Med Student, London

I am shocked at how badly junior doctors have been treated over the past few years. We are being forced into a 48 hour working week from August 2009 due to the European Working Time Directive. Not only will we get less training time, but the annual salary for a first-year doctor will fall from an average of £32,000 to £25-27,000. Coupled with pay rises under inflation and now no free accommodation (plus a rise in tuition fees, meaning some students will be £40-50,000 in debt) this is no longer an affordable career path for many potential doctors.
A Very Angry Doctor, Sheffield

I am a junior doctor and after experiencing the debacle last year, I expected something better this year. Last year I was given a one year fixed term post (FTSTA) and have secured another that ends in August 2009. The road after that is virtually non-existent. Either I enter a non training "service doctor" post or leave the country or leave the profession. I have given most of my adult life to medicine and now feel let down and ignored, especially when they say "you're only a FTSTA".
Harris Shahzad, Newport

This has nothing to do with patient care. For generations doctors have just been guaranteed jobs and for the first time they are facing competition for employment, as in all other sectors, and they just can't seem to handle it. Junior doctors need to grow up and be realistic about how employment works.
Nabil Ali, London

As a new medical graduate, I am starting my working life fairly disillusioned. There's no other profession where you apply for a job not knowing a) what you'll be doing, b) where you'll be doing it, c) how much you'll be paid, or d) what your hours will be. Worst of all, if you are offered a job you don't like, you're not allowed to refuse it.
David, Birmingham

I'm only a second year medical student, but this whole situation isn't exactly giving me the confidence to stay in the UK after my training. Soon it could be that the tax payer is paying £250,000 to train us and then the government forces us to move abroad. Not exactly a sound investment.
Chris Sweeney, Leeds