If they don't have much to complain about, then why are they complaining. As for, where do they go to? RLE, that is the hot acronym on all doctors forums. Retire, locum emigrate. You can earn far more in Canada, Australia, the US, New Zealand, Dubai etc. Doctors know this, and they are going. As for me...locum, then retire. If you treat a valuable resource like rubbish, they go. As for earning more than most of their patients...one should hope so. Three A's a A level. Ten to fifteen years of training. Do you really, really, think they should not earn more than average. If so, please provide your reasoning.

Ah yes, the Daily Mail argument. Try paying GPs and consultants less, and see how many you have left. Did you find, when you were at school, that the stupid and the lazy were the ones who went to medical school. Or, did you find that the pupils who went to medical school were the hardest working, most motivated, most engaged and brightest? Perhaps you think doctors should be paid the minimum wage? I would imagine most people reading this blog are pretty right wing and believe in the free market. Well, welcome to the free market. When your most valuable resource finds that the rewards available do not match their skill set, they walk. Then what?

Please do not refer to 'bed blocking.' Or perhaps you would like to come and speak to some of my patients in Intermediate Care and tell them they are bed blocking. The correct term for such people is 'patients' who would love to go somewhere else. However due to savage cuts in social care, residential and nursing care beds are being removed from the community at a rapid rate, so there is nowhere else for them to go. At the same, community care providers are going bust, so there is a massive loss of care in the community. We should perhaps change the term 'bed blocking' to 'social care destroyers' a.k.a. the current Conservative Government. All such problems could be resolved by the use of an amazing problem removing agent called.... money.

You think '24/7 uniform standard of service at hospital is a no brainer, and I don't think too many doctors dispute that.' I think you would find that all doctors dispute that. Operations for routine surgery at 3am, all laboratories open fully 24 hours a day, outpatients to be seen through the night at fully staffed out patient departments. Do you really mean this? If so, do you believe anyone has costed this fully?

I am also interested as to you exact relationship with these eight doctors in your family. Are they your children, your brother and sisters, your parents? You must have a truly amazing family. You should be very proud of them, especially the 4 junior doctors. I presume they all voted no to strike action, which would be equally amazing, as the vote for strike action was > 98%.

Hunt wants a 7 day NHS. It is a catchy slogan. But what does it mean? That all hospitals and GP surgeries are open seven days a week (24 hours a day?) fully staffed by secretaries, porters, laboratory technicians, nurses, doctors etc. Or does it mean something else? If so, what. Simply shouting a slogan with no apparent idea of what this means does not inspire the slightest confidence that Hunt, or Cameron, or anyone else in the cabinet, has the slightest idea what they are doing.

As for stats about increased death rates at the weekend. Firstly, the effect is also found on Fridays and Mondays. Unless I missed something, these are not weekend days. Secondly, as a GP who works one evening a week, untill 11pm and every second weekend, I can state with total confidence that the patients who call, and are admitted at weekends, are considerably more seriously ill than during the week. A factor recognised by various studies. You have to be extremely careful about looking at raw figures then claiming cause and effect. As all scientists know, association is not the same as causation - and anyone who tries to claim that it is, is a complete fool.