I’m not saying dentists are badly paid, I was just making the point that the government imposing a contract that the profession viewed as unfair (which would effectively either cut their wages or increase the hours worked for the same remuneration) and also a contract they told the government was a bad idea which would affect patient care turned out to indeed adversely affect patient care and the accessibility of the service, just as the profession predicted.
I think it’s A kind of parallel but this thread isn’t about teeth (yet, although I’m sure 7 day working for dental services is one of the next planned steps)
As far as course fees go, I agree the costs in the uk are peanuts compared to other countries but many, many other things are different in other countries too so comparing has a limited validity. Increasing the costs of training would only either reduce the numbers wanting to do the job or mean they would demand better remuneration (as they get in some other countries) this would only serve to further push the system towards the private sector.
If you don’t want monkeys you have to pay more than peanuts in any part of life. You’ve also kind of proved my point in that, people do a healthcare job because they want to help people, not because of the cash. I was just pointing out that if it was as cushy a job as was implied above (ie easier and less stressful for tonnes of cash) then surely those lorry drivers mentioned would be medics instead.