No time for celebration

The fancier has been lucky enough to secure employment for August this year, however there are many who have not yet been so lucky. Remedy Uk is running a list which contains all the junior doctors who are staring unemployment in the face at the moment.

It's hard to sum up just how traumatic this year has been for everyone involved, and this trauma is not yet over for the majority of candidates, it must seem that it will never end. It has been five months of uncertainty so far, and this will stretch towards eight months for many. And this stress has been all added on top of working in some pretty demanding roles as it is. I am quite sure that this has been too much for some people to take, the emotional and physical drain has taken its inevitable toll.

All of us know people who have quit medicine or are quitting, or who have decided to end their days with the NHS and flee for greener grass overseas. At my lowest ebb I have had thoughts of quitting medicine, even though it is the only thing I ever really wanted to do, but we do all have out limits of endurance. I don't know how much longer I could have lasted before breaking.

I have now got lucky. I will not lie, I do feel very relieved but there is no sense of satisfaction for me; a feeling of hollow emptyness has taken hold as a result of the grave injustice inflicted upon so many of us this year. The Department of Health may be running scared now, but nothing they do now can make up for the terrible damage that has already been done.

It is not just about a job, it is about so much more that that. A generation has been treated inhumanely and with a complete lack of respect, as if they were nothing more that cattle being forcefully bullied into a pen. Our generation has been abused and violated, and this betrayal will live long in our memories. Those behind this should be deeply ashamed of what they have done, and events should never be forgotten, they must be remembered so that future generations never have to suffer like this again.

It is no time for celebration, it is a time for thinking of those who are still having to endure this nightmare process. Whether being forced to uproot and move miles from home, or having to worrying about unemployment when having to support a young family; it is hard to ignore the devastating human cost.

The long term damage done by this years events cannot be underestimated, the last remaining islands of goodwill and trust have been all but decimated. The risk of creating a whole generation of demoralised staff who see no incentive in investing that little bit extra threatens to become a very worrying reality. Those in control have always failed to appreciate how the service is held together by some very hard working well meaning doctors; this years events threaten to be yet another nail in the NHS' coffin.