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#GPnews: Medical students receive highest median salaries

16:15 Medical students receive higher median salaries than graduates from all other courses in the ten years after graduation, a new study has revealed.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies found that male medical students earned a median wage of £55,000 after ten years, while female medical students made £45,000 a year.

This compared with economics, the second most lucrative degree with male students earning a median salary of £42,000, and women earning £38,000.

However, when it comes to the big money, economics students were way ahead.

The IFS said: ‘For males, it is estimated that approximately 12% of economics graduates earned above £100,000 some ten years after graduation; by contrast, 6% of those studying medicine or law earned more than £100,000

‘For females, it is estimated that approximately 9% of economicsgraduates earned above £100,000 some ten years after graduation;by contrast, just 1% of those studying medicine and 3% of those studying law did so.’

The report highlighted the gulf in salaries between males and females, and between those from higher and lower socioeconomic backgrounds.

14:00 Well, this is awkward. A video has emerged of NHS England medical director Professor Sir Bruce Keogh discussing how important it is to have the weekend off, away from work. Important points, that need to be made – especially in the context of seven-day GP routine access and the junior doctor contract row.



11:25 A group of junior doctors have set up a ‘negotiating table’ outside the Department of Health building in Whitehall to give hammer home the point that juniors are willing to reopen talks.

The ‘indefinite peaceful protest’, which is being led by Dr Rachel Clarke and Dr Dagan Lonsdale, neither of whom have BMA roles, will see them waiting for Mr Hunt, who has repeatedly stated that his door is ‘always open’ to junior doctors. 

They said they are waiting for him ‘to open his door and allow them inside to discuss with him how to solve the current impasse and avert further strike action’.

They will be waiting for 24 hours, after which two grassroots doctors will continue to be stationed outside the DH from 9am to 9pm and will continue after the talks have restarted.

Dr Clarke, a junior in Oxford, said: ‘None of us can understand why Jeremy Hunt is burying his head in the sand and refusing to talk when an all-out strike is days away. Grassroots doctors are absolutely desperate.

‘Dialogue is so obviously the only way to end this dispute. All of us have a duty here to put patients first and do everything possible to avert further strikes. The BMA wants to talk, so why on earth won’t Jeremy Hunt get back around the table? If patient safety really mattered to him, he’d be there already.’

Junior doctors strike

Junior doctors strike

10:40 All hail the paperless NHS! 



9:45  This morning we are leading on the publication of respiratory experts’ revised ‘gold-standard’ guidelines which contradict NICE experts on how best to diagnose asthma, potentially leaving GPs with conflicting sets of advice.

In a draft revision of their asthma guidelines, the British Thoracic Society (BTS) and Scottish Intercollegiate Network (SIGN) have stuck with their previous advice, which allows GPs the option to base a diagnosis on a trial of treatment in patients with suspected asthma.

Dr Andrew Green, chair of the GPC’s clinical and prescribing subcommittee, said it was ‘refreshing to see the uncertainty GPs are familiar with recognised in official guidance’ and that the recommendations were ‘a welcome balance to some of the more entrenched views that have been aired in the general media recently concerning asthma diagnoses’.

9:40  Good morning and welcome to the live blog – stay up to date with the most important health news relevant to GPs.