Prescribe yourselves a chill pill, junior doctors
Fancy whining about working a mere 72 hours a week. Dr Google never sleeps
This week, junior doctors are on strike because of their rosters (12 days on, or seven nights on; two days off; max 16 hours a day; max 72 hours a week). ONLY 72 hours a week? Here we go, soft-bellied millennials whining again. Hey doctors — why don’t you prescribe yourselves a chill pill? Boom. You might want to hold that under cold water for 30 seconds — because that was a sick burn.
Here we go, the selfie generation, emoting again, sending out me-me memes, about how their lives are so much harder than everyone’s before. Boohoo, diddums, give me my Instagram, not my coronary angiogram. Next we’ll be changing the name of stethoscopes because some doctors have a lisp.
I know what you’re thinking. Why should we, the public, the taxpayer, have any sympathy for people who are smarter, richer, more hard-working, and generally more socially prestigious than we are?
This is not how public sympathy works. Public sympathy is generally a constant tango between hate and anger. This is why a juicy murder trial in Australia is getting much more coverage than something that concerns our own (whatever) health system.
Here’s what I want to know. Why has it taken until 2016 for medical science to decide sleep is important? If this week doctors are striking about not-enough-sleep, what will they be whining about next week? More bacon? Chocolate?
If sleep is such a big deal, why didn’t doctors need it in the past? Furthermore, if sleep is really beneficial, why doesn’t Pfizer sell it in a tablet?
Without wishing to turn my own experience into data, I sleep an enormous amount. And trust me, it hasn’t turned me into a doctor at all.
Some people say that you wouldn’t want a truck driver or an air traffic controller doing shifts like that. Yes, but if they make a mistake, it can disrupt other people’s travel plans for ages. That’s a huge amount of public stress. If a doctor makes a mistake, well, the good news is you probably won’t ever know about it. And ignorance is bliss. So let’s cut to the chase of what these Shortland Street wannabe, Disney Channel, Nickelodeon Doogie Howser Beliebers are really angry about. Competition.
Like all industries, the medical industry