Shrink Bloat

First-year doctors threaten to strike because they can’t get enough work

First-year doctors have voted in favour of strikes in a fresh blow to Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary...

The latest ballot saw 97 per cent of first-year resident doctors vote in favour of strikes, equating to 3,950 people in total. The turnout was 65 per cent.

97 percent? Isn't that the same percentage of climate scientists convinced we are all doomed by climate change and it's your fault? 

Coincidence of course, nothing to do with a tendency of professional people to gather together in large flocks for protection against anything with sharp teeth.

Reading on -


Dr Jack Fletcher, the chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee, said the doctors in question “won’t accept that they face a career of insecurity at a time when the demand for doctors is huge”.

He said: “The numbers are absurd: more than 10,000 doctors applied this year to become psychiatrists with less than 500 able to get a place, yet patients are still experiencing significant waits at a detriment to their health.


By gum, so this year 10,000 doctors applied to become psychiatrists but only 500 managed to get a place. That's shrink bloat. 

Decades ago my cousin went in for psychiatry after qualifying as a doctor. At the time he said it was the quickest way to become a consultant, which he duly demonstrated.