Happiness and comparisons are a choice

Oliver discusses the right comparisons for NHS doctors’ pay.1 There is no “right” comparison. Happiness is relative and a choice. I choose to compare myself to my father, who was a general practitioner in Malaysia who was still working longer hours than me at the age of 70 with metastatic thyroid cancer, earning £20 an hour. I choose to compare myself to my wife, who is a qualified chartered architect with over 10 years’ experience but earns £12 an hour and has been made redundant on numerous occasions. I choose to compare myself to my cousin who is a surgeon in Australia, earning a seven figure salary at the expense of spending time with family.An NHS consultant job comprising 10 programmed activities with a 5% on-call supplement is a part time job. I never expected financial rewards from a system that pays the same to a paediatric cardiac surgeon and…
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