johnh wrote:
Thanks but I know what the bill they send me every month says…
Who is “they”? That would be the first step in unraveling how you could possibly come up with that number.
Private medical insurance not covered by Medicare is in that range.
“Usually in combination, though perhaps just one day a week on the NHS to show proper liberal credentials”
I think in the UK it is a great deal by reference to the total.
Silvaire wrote:
BTW, why is Belgium so high in fatality rate and why have I never heard it discussed? Number 2 after San Marino.
Belgium seems to be one of the countries where the fatality rate reporting best corresponds to reality. I read (granted, a few weeks ago) a comparison between different countries of the number of reported Covid-19 deaths as a percentage of the statistical excess mortality. A high figure would indicate more reliable reporting.
Belgium had the highest figure in Europe (92%) followed by Sweden and a few other countries (at 90%). The figure for the Netherlands was 50%…
kwlf wrote:
I have just walked out through the car park and the poshest car was a BMW sports car, undoubtedly nice but there is no row of Aston Martins here – perhaps there is in Brighton. Personally I earn about 50K. I don’t feel hard done by, but would prefer people not to assume we are all on 300K. They have a tendency to quote you 30 hours of labour for fixing alternators then say ‘What exactly did you say you do again?’ with a puzzled expression when you say you can’t afford it.
Yes, the expectations of the public what we as doctors earn is usually out of touch with reality.
In Germany the income of hospital doctors is very transparent, as most are paid in accordance with the labour agreement between our union and the employers association. This is easy to find on the internet (“TV Ärzte VKA” and “TV Ärzte TdL”).
At my level (6th year on the job, specialist) that works out to roughly 6000€/month before taxes and health insurance. I receive additional pay for shift work and shifts as an emergency services doctor, so my net pay after taxes and health insurance worked out to about 55k€ last year.
The maximum you can earn under the labour agreement is about 10,000€/month. Heads of Departments usually get a separate, private contract that can earn them more, typically in the region of 300k€/year, though variations are huge.
Doctors with their own surgeries can earn even more than that in some circumstances, but few do.
Consultants, not hospital doctors 
These are UK terms, however.
Airborne_Again wrote:
Belgium seems to be one of the countries where the fatality rate reporting best corresponds to reality. I read (granted, a few weeks ago) a comparison between different countries of the number of reported Covid-19 deaths as a percentage of the statistical excess mortality. A high figure would indicate more reliable reporting.Belgium had the highest figure in Europe (92%) followed by Sweden and a few other countries (at 90%). The figure for the Netherlands was 50%…
I’ve almost given up trying to infer anything from the statistics, for two main reasons:
1. No country, for obvious reasons, has got any sort of handle on the total infection rate. Educated guesses at best. All we really know is the number of serious cases (i.e. hospitalisations) and while that number is useful when compared to deaths for assessing how your healthcare system is performing, it doesn’t tell the whole story and if you don’t know the total infection rate it is really hard to infer how a country is performing and more crucially why.
2. It is very obvious that every country is reporting deaths differently and there is probably not even much consistency within a country. Clearly in some places they write Covid-19 on almost every death certificate, and in others they are much more reserved in attributing a death to it, then there’s spectrum in between the two. It was reported fairly early on that in the UK the official Covid-19 death numbers include anyone who died after a positive test, regardless of the actual cause of death.
kwlf wrote:
I have just walked out through the car park and the poshest car was a BMW sports car, undoubtedly nice but there is no row of Aston Martins here – perhaps there is in Brighton.
I agree that the pay of doctors in the UK is often heavily over-stated in the public perception. One can study the published NHS pay scales and as far as I can tell it is only Consultants who get into six figures, and then not actually by very much. The real money is obviously in the private work, and how much they are able to do alongside their NHS role is sometimes a bone of contention – certainly with my taxpayer hat on I expect them to work full-time for their taxpayer-funded salary.
That said, people on quite modest incomes can drive an Aston Martin if that’s what they choose to spend their money on. Perhaps doctors just like fast cars?
Perhaps there are legacy contracts on which older doctors who’ve been around a long time do better for themselves. Much like a long-haul Captain with British Airways who has 25 years with the company will be on a salary that a newly type-rated First Officer in their early 20s will never, ever reach.
I would have said that a consultant is a hospital doctor. GPs are self employed. Most people work full time and a bit – anybody doing anything less would be very unpopular with their colleagues.
Some information from Airbus about cabin air quality.
What particle size is caught by HEPA filters?
Viruses are mostly 50-150nm across.
