Are British doctors overpaid?
Discussion
I noticed this article from the Sunday Times...
BRITISH doctors now earn more than their counterparts on the Continent, according to a new study. It has revealed that hospital consultants’ salaries increased by more than 30% between 2000 and 2004.
British consultants and GPs are now better off than medical specialists in France, Germany and Denmark.
Despite the increases, consultants are asking for a pay rise of 4.5% — almost twice the rate of inflation. Their average annual earnings exceeded £94,000 in 2004. These pay increases were accelerated after consultants agreed changes to their National Health Service contracts two years ago in return for pay rises.
The increases are revealed in a report by the British Medical Association (BMA), compiled from independent surveys and data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
A separate report reveals that 43% of GPs were paid more than £100,000 a year
in 2004, compared with 23% the previous year, making them the best paid in Europe.
The government is committed to massive investment in the health service and spending is to rise by 7.4% a year until 2008. Expenditure is budgeted at nearly £70 billion.
Half the extra £5.9 billion invested in the NHS in the past financial year has gone on extra pay and pensions, according to official figures.
While health experts say pay increases were required to reward nurses and recruit lower-paid staff, the rises for consultants and GPs have been criticised for being too generous. The contracts for consultants limited their basic working week to 40 hours.
GPs have also enjoyed large pay rises from new contracts, in which they are paid more for treating vulnerable groups and meeting new health targets. The contracts also allow GPs to stop providing out-of-hours cover. If they provide such cover they are paid more.
Dr Des Spence, a Glasgow GP, said the extra money was counterproductive. “My wage has doubled in the past 10 years,” he said. “Giving GPs this amount of money may even make staffing resources worse, because GPs have no need to do extra work out of hours.
“This increase in money has not been translated into improvements in patient care.”
NHS expenditure on doctors has doubled in the past five years. In 1999 the NHS spent £3 billion on their pay, increasing to £6 billion in 2004. The pay rise has not been matched by any significant increases in productivity.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has calculated that between 1997 and 2003 doctors’ productivity fell by an average of about 0.75%.
The government argues the ONS figures do not take into account the quality of care. Sir Nigel Crisp, the NHS chief executive, said deaths from heart disease and cancer were continuing to fall as hospital services improved.
The BMA said the 4.5% pay claim for next year is necessary to ensure consultants are retained in the NHS. Dr Paul Miller, chairman of the BMA’s consultants’ committee, said: “Almost eight out of 10 consultants say they plan to retire early. This would be disastrous for the health service. The NHS should be doing all it can to retain consultants.”
The BMA report on pay has been produced as part of its submission to the review body on doctors’ and dentists’ remuneration. “GPs in the UK have the highest earnings out of all the European countries included in the OECD data,” says the report. On consultants’ pay it says: “When comparing earnings of salaried doctors across the countries for which the (OECD) data is available, earnings in the UK rank second only with doctors in the USA.”
The BMA argues that further pay increases should ensure doctors maintain their position in the world rankings. “Any slippage could encourage doctors to move in pursuit of more money,” said a spokesman.
Dentists have also enjoyed generous salary rises and are among the best paid in Europe. An independent report, the EU Manual of Dental Practice, reveals dentists in general practice are paid more than counterparts in France and Germany.
Patricia Hewitt, the health secretary, has warned that the large increases for doctors should stop. She is backed by hospital managers who say any further pay rises above inflation for consultants would result in cuts to hospital services, including equipment, medicines and staff.
A survey by the NHS Confederation, which represents hospital managers, showed the vast majority of chief executives do not believe higher pay for nurses and doctors is affordable.
Alastair Henderson, deputy director of NHS Employers, the part of the confederation dealing with pay, said: “If you take more money for one area, such as staff salaries, there is less for other patient services, such as equipment, medicines and employing more staff.”
If the current Doctors' pay trend snowballs out of control , it would certainly hinder any future improvment to the NHS and patients primerly.It would be interesting to hear of any PHers here who are doctors and could give us an insight into why they command higher wages than their European counterparts?.
>> Edited by allnighter on Sunday 11th December 10:58
BRITISH doctors now earn more than their counterparts on the Continent, according to a new study. It has revealed that hospital consultants’ salaries increased by more than 30% between 2000 and 2004.
British consultants and GPs are now better off than medical specialists in France, Germany and Denmark.
Despite the increases, consultants are asking for a pay rise of 4.5% — almost twice the rate of inflation. Their average annual earnings exceeded £94,000 in 2004. These pay increases were accelerated after consultants agreed changes to their National Health Service contracts two years ago in return for pay rises.
The increases are revealed in a report by the British Medical Association (BMA), compiled from independent surveys and data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
A separate report reveals that 43% of GPs were paid more than £100,000 a year
in 2004, compared with 23% the previous year, making them the best paid in Europe. The government is committed to massive investment in the health service and spending is to rise by 7.4% a year until 2008. Expenditure is budgeted at nearly £70 billion.
Half the extra £5.9 billion invested in the NHS in the past financial year has gone on extra pay and pensions, according to official figures.
While health experts say pay increases were required to reward nurses and recruit lower-paid staff, the rises for consultants and GPs have been criticised for being too generous. The contracts for consultants limited their basic working week to 40 hours.
GPs have also enjoyed large pay rises from new contracts, in which they are paid more for treating vulnerable groups and meeting new health targets. The contracts also allow GPs to stop providing out-of-hours cover. If they provide such cover they are paid more.
Dr Des Spence, a Glasgow GP, said the extra money was counterproductive. “My wage has doubled in the past 10 years,” he said. “Giving GPs this amount of money may even make staffing resources worse, because GPs have no need to do extra work out of hours.
“This increase in money has not been translated into improvements in patient care.”
NHS expenditure on doctors has doubled in the past five years. In 1999 the NHS spent £3 billion on their pay, increasing to £6 billion in 2004. The pay rise has not been matched by any significant increases in productivity.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has calculated that between 1997 and 2003 doctors’ productivity fell by an average of about 0.75%.
The government argues the ONS figures do not take into account the quality of care. Sir Nigel Crisp, the NHS chief executive, said deaths from heart disease and cancer were continuing to fall as hospital services improved.
The BMA said the 4.5% pay claim for next year is necessary to ensure consultants are retained in the NHS. Dr Paul Miller, chairman of the BMA’s consultants’ committee, said: “Almost eight out of 10 consultants say they plan to retire early. This would be disastrous for the health service. The NHS should be doing all it can to retain consultants.”
The BMA report on pay has been produced as part of its submission to the review body on doctors’ and dentists’ remuneration. “GPs in the UK have the highest earnings out of all the European countries included in the OECD data,” says the report. On consultants’ pay it says: “When comparing earnings of salaried doctors across the countries for which the (OECD) data is available, earnings in the UK rank second only with doctors in the USA.”
The BMA argues that further pay increases should ensure doctors maintain their position in the world rankings. “Any slippage could encourage doctors to move in pursuit of more money,” said a spokesman.
Dentists have also enjoyed generous salary rises and are among the best paid in Europe. An independent report, the EU Manual of Dental Practice, reveals dentists in general practice are paid more than counterparts in France and Germany.
Patricia Hewitt, the health secretary, has warned that the large increases for doctors should stop. She is backed by hospital managers who say any further pay rises above inflation for consultants would result in cuts to hospital services, including equipment, medicines and staff.
A survey by the NHS Confederation, which represents hospital managers, showed the vast majority of chief executives do not believe higher pay for nurses and doctors is affordable.
Alastair Henderson, deputy director of NHS Employers, the part of the confederation dealing with pay, said: “If you take more money for one area, such as staff salaries, there is less for other patient services, such as equipment, medicines and employing more staff.”
If the current Doctors' pay trend snowballs out of control , it would certainly hinder any future improvment to the NHS and patients primerly.It would be interesting to hear of any PHers here who are doctors and could give us an insight into why they command higher wages than their European counterparts?.
>> Edited by allnighter on Sunday 11th December 10:58
allnighter said:
Despite the increases, consultants are asking for a pay rise of 4.5% — almost twice the rate of inflation. Their average annual earnings exceeded £94,000 in 2004...
A separate report reveals that 43% of GPs were paid more than £100,000 a year in 2004, compared with 23% the previous year, making them the best paid in Europe.
Consultants, well possibly OK. But £100K+ for a GP is ridiculous. My local surgery is very badly run: you have to make an appointment on the same day, you sit in a germ-infested waiting room full of sneezing brats with the windows tigt shut, and the waiting time is about 45 minutes after the time booked. So I don't often bother to go; I let nature do the job instead. Great value, not.
simpo two said:
Despite the increases, consultants are asking for a pay rise of 4.5% — almost twice the rate of inflation. Their average annual earnings exceeded £94,000 in 2004...
A separate report reveals that 43% of GPs were paid more than £100,000 a year in 2004, compared with 23% the previous year, making them the best paid in Europe.
Consultants, well possibly OK. But £100K+ for a GP is ridiculous. My local surgery is very badly run: you have to make an appointment on the same day, you sit in a germ-infested waiting room full of sneezing brats with the windows tigt shut, and the waiting time is about 45 minutes after the time booked. So I don't often bother to go; I let nature do the job instead. Great value, not.
This is the problem with doctors waiting rooms, they're full of people who don't need to be there. As you say, you let nature take it's course so you obviously don't need to be there either.
Lets hope doctors salaries go up even more, that way my daughter will be able to afford to pay back the £30K + debt she will accrue over the next 6 or 7 years.
falcemob said:
Despite the increases, consultants are asking for a pay rise of 4.5% — almost twice the rate of inflation. Their average annual earnings exceeded £94,000 in 2004...
A separate report reveals that 43% of GPs were paid more than £100,000 a year in 2004, compared with 23% the previous year, making them the best paid in Europe.
Consultants, well possibly OK. But £100K+ for a GP is ridiculous. My local surgery is very badly run: you have to make an appointment on the same day, you sit in a germ-infested waiting room full of sneezing brats with the windows tigt shut, and the waiting time is about 45 minutes after the time booked. So I don't often bother to go; I let nature do the job instead. Great value, not.
This is the problem with doctors waiting rooms, they're full of people who don't need to be there. As you say, you let nature take it's course so you obviously don't need to be there either.
Lets hope doctors salaries go up even more, that way my daughter will be able to afford to pay back the £30K + debt she will accrue over the next 6 or 7 years.
All students accrue debt - it's the nature of the beast. £100k a year as a GP is a joke, and a not very funny one at that. Different jobs bring different pressures and many see people responsible for the safety and well being of others. From my experience of the NHS it's a
show and the role of the GP has been reduced to handing out prescription medication ad hoc in order to remove the annoyance that they see before them i.e the patient.Like any profession there are excellent, good, satisfactory and sub-standard practitioners.
100k for a GP that truly knows there stuff has top class clinical skills and knows exactly how & where to refer is a bargain IMO; but there seems to be a lot of GP's out there that literally don't know there (or your) arse from their (or your) elbow?
A system to measure competence and pay accordingly would be a bit of a nightmare though???
100k for a GP that truly knows there stuff has top class clinical skills and knows exactly how & where to refer is a bargain IMO; but there seems to be a lot of GP's out there that literally don't know there (or your) arse from their (or your) elbow?
A system to measure competence and pay accordingly would be a bit of a nightmare though???
simpo two said:
Consultants, well possibly OK. But £100K+ for a GP is ridiculous. My local surgery is very badly run: you have to make an appointment on the same day, you sit in a germ-infested waiting room full of sneezing brats with the windows tigt shut, and the waiting time is about 45 minutes after the time booked.
The number of people they are treating has increased but I don't see any new surgeries opening up. There surely must also be an argument for opening existing ones longer hours, when you consider how much it must cost to set up a surgery why not just have them open longer hours with shifts? Clearly some of the money now being thrown at GPs and wasted on endless layer of extra admin in the NHS could go towards paying for it.
The NHS no longer works as it used to, we all know that, maybe it is time for a fresh look at it with a blank sheet of paper.
I just had an interesting thought - whenever I am at the doctors (I'm not a hypochondriac, I had fortnightly antenatal appointments 
) I see large amount of school age children, usually with nothing outwardly wrong worse than a sniffle.
The majority of schools have a school nurse to deal with accidents and looking after medication - why not train these further to deasl with the children: instead of taking child to doctors with their poorly tummy, etc, they see the school doctor and are allowed home if needed, or else are told to return to class.
It would take some of the strain off doctors surgeries, and would probably lead to fewer cases of truancy: parent phones doctor, can't get an appointment for 2 days, keeps child off till then - now parent takes child to school where they are seen straight away (and can pick up any home work on the way
)
Just a thought...
) I see large amount of school age children, usually with nothing outwardly wrong worse than a sniffle. The majority of schools have a school nurse to deal with accidents and looking after medication - why not train these further to deasl with the children: instead of taking child to doctors with their poorly tummy, etc, they see the school doctor and are allowed home if needed, or else are told to return to class.
It would take some of the strain off doctors surgeries, and would probably lead to fewer cases of truancy: parent phones doctor, can't get an appointment for 2 days, keeps child off till then - now parent takes child to school where they are seen straight away (and can pick up any home work on the way
) Just a thought...
Oh dear, where do I start?
Any organisation spemnds the greatest proportion of it's income on staff pay. The NHS is no different. It is also the third largest employer in the world after The Indian Railways, and the Chinese army.
I am one of those overpaid GPs that are apparently "a joke". All I do is sit at my desk all day and hand out prescriptions and sick notes, and then laugh all the way to the bank. Yeah, right that's what I do.
I take no part in acute medicine, I never visit people at home, I haven't the foggiest idea what the term preventative medicine means. I can't remember the last time I had to sort out someone's life threatenting depression, try to persuade a patient who is 6 stone overweight, has diabetes, and smokes 40 a day, that perhaps we ought to work towards a healthier lifestyle. I haven't tried to adopt every stupid political whim dished out by the Department of Health and make it workable.
My senior partner recently had to go to see a good normal family at home, to try to sort out the damage caused by the father going up to his 13 year old son's bedroom the previous evening, to find him hanging from his bunk bed by his school tie. The boy was being bullied at school and his friend had recently died after falling out of a tree, skewering himself onto some railings - that episode was also attended by a GP colleague of mine.
I have in the past, watched and waited and tried to help, whilst patients I have known for years, and consider as friends, come to me to hear me tell them they have terminal cancer, and I watch them wither away and die.
I have seen people die by eroding an artery in their lung as it is invaded by lung cancer, and sen them cough streams ogf blood all over the walls of their bedroom.
I have been assaulted, threatened by a psychotic patient with a knife, been sworn at, had all sorts of aggressibve behaviour thrown at me because I wouldn't give in to people's unreasonable demands for drugs, sick notes etc.
Perhaps I should let my fiancee come on here and post up why GPs are worth a decent wage? Before we became close, I saw her as an emergency patient because she was bleeding after a micarriage - she would have died in front of my eyes if I hadn't phoned the ambulance service 3 times in 15 minutes and got her to hospital - she needed a 7-pint transfusion and had emergency surgery - her bedroom was like an abbatoir when I got there.
Patients at my surgery NEVER wait longer than 2 days for a routine appointment, and anyone who needs urgent treatment gets it the same day, usually within a fewhours of the request.
We don't give out antibiotics to people with colds, even when they demand it.
If I need to spend an hour counselling a patient I will, even if it means I go home late.
I never get angry with patients, ALWAYS try to see their side, understand their fears and anxieties, alwys take time to explain things, NEVER get rid of patients by dishing out prescriptions.
i spend hours and hours reading books, going on refresher courses, learning new skills, trying to keep up to date with constantly changimng face of medicine. Our practice is 10% under it's drug budget - only achieved by hard work and constant audit of our prescribing.
Some of you haven't the first clue what I do and how my time is spent. You think GPs still live in the 50s, when it might have been all golf and dinners in fancy restaurants. I don't like golf, and I can't afford fancy restaurants because I have a home and family to pay for.
Do you know what the joke is? There are people out there who buy and sell share options for a living, and go home with £1million pound bonuses for fecking about with other people's money - a really moral and upstanding career.
Try finding a bit more about what life as a doctor is really like before you start spouting the usual ill-informed cliches and your own blinkered views. I'm worth a of a lot more than £100k a year - if I earned that much in the first place!!
Edited to add:-
I worked out recently what my average pay rise had been over the 15 years of work as a GP - guess what? 3% a year.
As for the "large pay rise for GPs" - we have hed yet another new contract forced upon us, which for the first time ever means that we get paid for all the screening and moitoring work we have been doing gratis for years.
And guess what - our PCT (Primary Care Trust) has told us that thre isn't enough money to pay for the work we're doing (I always thought a contract was binding on both parties?), and so we will have to fund staff pay rises, computer costs, extra NIC costs etc, out of our pay rise. So efectively, I am now directly subsidisng the NHS out of my own pocket.
I pay £7000 a year to allow me to go home at night, and not be called out of bed at 3am for a child's earache. In return, do shifts at a local Out-Of-Hours service, but at least I have a decent night's sleep. I do this because I like to be at home at night, and not be waiting to be dragged out to see something that (usually) isn't urgent, nor life-threatening.
Angry? ME? Too right I'm angry! I spend my life trying to help peopel, and I get nothing but accusations of greed in return. It makes me want to just pack it all in,. and go and retrain as a plumber - at least I'd be valued then.
>> Edited by nubbin on Sunday 11th December 13:27
Any organisation spemnds the greatest proportion of it's income on staff pay. The NHS is no different. It is also the third largest employer in the world after The Indian Railways, and the Chinese army.
I am one of those overpaid GPs that are apparently "a joke". All I do is sit at my desk all day and hand out prescriptions and sick notes, and then laugh all the way to the bank. Yeah, right that's what I do.
I take no part in acute medicine, I never visit people at home, I haven't the foggiest idea what the term preventative medicine means. I can't remember the last time I had to sort out someone's life threatenting depression, try to persuade a patient who is 6 stone overweight, has diabetes, and smokes 40 a day, that perhaps we ought to work towards a healthier lifestyle. I haven't tried to adopt every stupid political whim dished out by the Department of Health and make it workable.
My senior partner recently had to go to see a good normal family at home, to try to sort out the damage caused by the father going up to his 13 year old son's bedroom the previous evening, to find him hanging from his bunk bed by his school tie. The boy was being bullied at school and his friend had recently died after falling out of a tree, skewering himself onto some railings - that episode was also attended by a GP colleague of mine.
I have in the past, watched and waited and tried to help, whilst patients I have known for years, and consider as friends, come to me to hear me tell them they have terminal cancer, and I watch them wither away and die.
I have seen people die by eroding an artery in their lung as it is invaded by lung cancer, and sen them cough streams ogf blood all over the walls of their bedroom.
I have been assaulted, threatened by a psychotic patient with a knife, been sworn at, had all sorts of aggressibve behaviour thrown at me because I wouldn't give in to people's unreasonable demands for drugs, sick notes etc.
Perhaps I should let my fiancee come on here and post up why GPs are worth a decent wage? Before we became close, I saw her as an emergency patient because she was bleeding after a micarriage - she would have died in front of my eyes if I hadn't phoned the ambulance service 3 times in 15 minutes and got her to hospital - she needed a 7-pint transfusion and had emergency surgery - her bedroom was like an abbatoir when I got there.
Patients at my surgery NEVER wait longer than 2 days for a routine appointment, and anyone who needs urgent treatment gets it the same day, usually within a fewhours of the request.
We don't give out antibiotics to people with colds, even when they demand it.
If I need to spend an hour counselling a patient I will, even if it means I go home late.
I never get angry with patients, ALWAYS try to see their side, understand their fears and anxieties, alwys take time to explain things, NEVER get rid of patients by dishing out prescriptions.
i spend hours and hours reading books, going on refresher courses, learning new skills, trying to keep up to date with constantly changimng face of medicine. Our practice is 10% under it's drug budget - only achieved by hard work and constant audit of our prescribing.
Some of you haven't the first
clue what I do and how my time is spent. You think GPs still live in the 50s, when it might have been all golf and dinners in fancy restaurants. I don't like golf, and I can't afford fancy restaurants because I have a home and family to pay for. Do you know what the joke is? There are people out there who buy and sell share options for a living, and go home with £1million pound bonuses for fecking about with other people's money - a really moral and upstanding career.
Try finding a bit more about what life as a doctor is really like before you start spouting the usual ill-informed cliches and your own blinkered views. I'm worth a
of a lot more than £100k a year - if I earned that much in the first place!! Edited to add:-
I worked out recently what my average pay rise had been over the 15 years of work as a GP - guess what? 3% a year.
As for the "large pay rise for GPs" - we have hed yet another new contract forced upon us, which for the first time ever means that we get paid for all the screening and moitoring work we have been doing gratis for years.
And guess what - our PCT (Primary Care Trust) has told us that thre isn't enough money to pay for the work we're doing (I always thought a contract was binding on both parties?), and so we will have to fund staff pay rises, computer costs, extra NIC costs etc, out of our pay rise. So efectively, I am now directly subsidisng the NHS out of my own pocket.
I pay £7000 a year to allow me to go home at night, and not be called out of bed at 3am for a child's earache. In return, do shifts at a local Out-Of-Hours service, but at least I have a decent night's sleep. I do this because I like to be at home at night, and not be waiting to be dragged out to see something that (usually) isn't urgent, nor life-threatening.
Angry? ME? Too
right I'm angry! I spend my life trying to help peopel, and I get nothing but accusations of greed in return. It makes me want to just pack it all in,. and go and retrain as a plumber - at least I'd be valued then. >> Edited by nubbin on Sunday 11th December 13:27
Ribol said:
The number of people they are treating has increased but I don't see any new surgeries opening up. There surely must also be an argument for opening existing ones longer hours, when you consider how much it must cost to set up a surgery why not just have them open longer hours with shifts?
Good idea. You can buy groceries and alcohol 24 hours a day; why can't you visit a doctor like that as well? Being able to see a doctor is a lot more important than being able to buy beer, no?
Mr Brown has increased taxes and NHS funding by a vast amount but what do we see at street level? Nothing. It's time for improvements at the sharp end and for surgeries to behave like service industries, because we're damn well paying for it.
Doctors and Police Officers are two of the most underpaid, overworked and underappreciated professions in the world. Just MHO.
Nubbin, if it gets too much you can always do what several expats have done; set up shop in the good old USA. The only thing you have to worry about then is malpractice insurance (which has just gotten better in Florida because there has been some tort reform regarding capping awards and attorney fees).
We would be happy to have you. No TVR's over here, however...
ErnestM
Nubbin, if it gets too much you can always do what several expats have done; set up shop in the good old USA. The only thing you have to worry about then is malpractice insurance (which has just gotten better in Florida because there has been some tort reform regarding capping awards and attorney fees).
We would be happy to have you. No TVR's over here, however...
ErnestM
wd* said:
I just had an interesting thought - whenever I am at the doctors (I'm not a hypochondriac, I had fortnightly antenatal appointments
The majority of schools have a school nurse to deal with accidents and looking after medication - why not train these further to deasl with the children: instead of taking child to doctors with their poorly tummy, etc, they see the school doctor and are allowed home if needed, or else are told to return to class.
It would take some of the strain off doctors surgeries, and would probably lead to fewer cases of truancy: parent phones doctor, can't get an appointment for 2 days, keeps child off till then - now parent takes child to school where they are seen straight away (and can pick up any home work on the way
Just a thought...
Most employers and schools require a sick note from a doctor these days, so they go to the doctor fake some vague symptomns and get one, some doctors will just give you them to get you out of their hair.
Nubbin is right though, it's people like the CEOs who get zillion dollar bonuses despite ruining companies and forcing thousands out of jobs it's they who are out playing golf all day and eating fancy restaraunts.
Doctors usually have a gruelling schedule for many years, including huge amounts of study, they earn every cent unlike some professions, not to mention the responsibility.
nubbin said:
Oh dear, where do I start?
I read your comments and to be honest , in any profession you encounter problems , hurdles, abuse etc...whether you are a paramedic , ambulance staff , nurse , road sweeper , pizza delivery driver on minimum wage or a fireman for that matter.The bottom line is if you love your job , and receive wages that are considered reasonable (certainly 100K is excessive), then the rest shouldn't matter.i know you gonna say it's your market value and you should get paid what's your worth.What if the market value of a doctor went up to 500K per year? does that still justify sacrificing services , cut backs and cut staffing (nurses, and cleaners) to finance an elite to keep up with the Joneses? Does it justify having the NHS over a barrel just because you are a doctor?
I know the training and the responsabilty are a huge part of your life, but there is what we call a high morale code that should be adopted in your profession.Please don't tell me you trained to be a doctor because of the financial rewards! I thought it was to help people and care for patients, or is that a utopic and naive assumption on my part?
>> Edited by allnighter on Sunday 11th December 14:33
nubbin said:
Do you know what the joke is? There are people out there who buy and sell share options for a living, and go home with £1million pound bonuses for fecking about with other people's money - a really moral and upstanding career.
Too right! There are infinitely more so-called 'professions' that deserve the overpaid moniker.
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