Truth about the Tik Tok doctors' boasts: I work in the NHS... and this is why I feel so sorry for them, reveals PROF ROB GALLOWAY
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'Medfluencers' – that's TikTok influencers who are doctors – are popping up on social media extolling the joys of locum work. 'Shifts are paid at significantly higher rates than the normal basic pay', says one to her 55,000 followers; another that her hourly rate as a locum 'is so vastly different to the normal hourly rate it is crazy'.
![[Dr Summer Kennedy tells her 1,792 followers that her hourly rate 'is so vastly different to the normal hourly rate it is crazy']](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/16/16/92172961-14198259-Dr_Summer_Kennedy_tells_her_1_792_followers_that_her_hourly_rate-a-2_1734364967055.jpg)
Added to the junior doctor strikes, this questionable use of social media and stories of small fortunes being earned has helped change many people's views of our junior doctors (now officially called 'resident' doctors). But what few of them will know is that over the past two decades, the NHS has not addressed the key problem that is really driving young doctors out of the health service.
![[In a TikTok video, Dr Lizkerry Odeh talks about how the pay from locum shifts is significantly higher than the normal basic pay]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/16/16/93199725-14198259-image-m-20_1734365853877.jpg)
That we need more doctors, there is no doubt: it's estimated we have to train an additional 3,000 to 6,000 doctors a year to keep up with the expected demand from an ageing population. However, NHS workforce policies, along with an utter failure of leadership from organisations such as the Royal Colleges, the General Medical Council (GMC) and Health Education England, have sabotaged that.
Last month, the GMC published its latest workforce report. Hidden in the graphs and data tables detailing the plans for the medical workforce is a glaring error. The increase in the number of medical students qualifying isn't matched by the increase in training programmes – with a gap of thousands.
When a doctor is newly qualified, they undertake two years of foundation training – this involves six, four-month jobs in different areas, to get a broad experience, readying them to start formal training programmes to become the GPs and consultants we need.
