I've been working for two years at a large DGH. Unfortunately I was not in the prioritisation group so did not get into training this year.
Essentially the clinical lead took several of us into her office and earlier this week and she was incredibly apologetic, she said that from August due to the trust financial position that it was very unlikely they were able to create more than 1 job and that we should start looking for other employment form August and not rely on our contracts being extended automatically. This is apparently due to the ongoing hiring freeze, and the only way the trust would make a job is if there was immediate and imminent patient safety risk and it had to through a very senior level which would take months. Simply being a known rota gap is not a reason ????? This by the way is the most insanely understaffed department I have ever seen, and is an absolute death trap for the patients unfortunate enough to be admitted here due to chronically abysmal staffing levels. I have personally seen patients suffer due to the horrific staffing levels.
Apparently multiple consultants have argued for more staffing, but the trust is just not budging. They have managed to get an agreement that in a very special circumstance if anyone's visa is at risk, the trust is willing to do something like a 40-60% FTE to get the minimum hours needed so that they do not risk someone being made to leave the country, but this is only in special circumstances.
I just can't believe it. I have lived and worked in a shitty job in what many in the UK would consider a poorly developed country and I have never felt my life so precarious and miserable as I do working as a resident doctor in the UK. There is absolutely no security whatsoever. Even the HCAs on my ward have more job security than this. Is this being a doctor in the UK is about? I just feel sick to the pits of my stomach. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine being in this situation. I honestly don't know what to do. I just feel like crying all the time. What the hell is going on.