Tim Ricketts
@timricketts_
Followers
16,867
Following
530
Media
829
Statuses
13,657
“Extremist” moderately junior Doctor. Waging a one man war against the NHS white plastic apron. 🚴🏻♂️🏔⛷🏃🏻♂️
Dartmoor
Joined August 2012
Don't wanna be here?
Send us removal request.
Explore trending content on Musk Viewer
#พิมพ์กรกนก
• 92975 Tweets
Canucks
• 68833 Tweets
#呪術廻戦
• 47030 Tweets
राजीव गांधी
• 46347 Tweets
定額減税
• 34835 Tweets
オールスター
• 34421 Tweets
給与明細
• 29635 Tweets
梅雨入り
• 27165 Tweets
招待コード
• 25130 Tweets
Vancouver
• 22094 Tweets
#TercerGrado
• 21798 Tweets
ショートアニメ
• 21202 Tweets
#RajivGandhi
• 17788 Tweets
梅津さん
• 17726 Tweets
手紙110円
• 16546 Tweets
ZAGATKANDIAZ GalauerPRINCE
• 15844 Tweets
梅津秀行さん
• 15395 Tweets
BikinBAPER LevelMAKSIMAL
• 15247 Tweets
भारत रत्न
• 13983 Tweets
手紙84円
• 13615 Tweets
आधुनिक भारत
• 11779 Tweets
ザレイズ
• 11691 Tweets
値上げ了承
• 10585 Tweets
Pinned Tweet
I’m just a Junior Doctor, standing in front of a Health Secretary, asking him to pay me as much as a Junior Doctor 15 years ago
79
787
6K
There’s something a bit baffling about a patient in hospital with covid who is unvaccinated because “I don’t believe in modern medicine”, but wants to be for full escalation and ITU. Do they think ITU treatment is based on the four humours and healing crystals?
260
3K
18K
“Encourage oral fluid intake” I write in the notes, having not had a drink for 6 hours
52
683
8K
Can anyone explain the argument for NHS privatisation? The way I see it, demand will be the same, it’ll just have more money. Where will that money come from? Consumers. So the only change is that people pay more for their healthcare, which we could have achieved via taxation
663
877
4K
Schrodinger's junior doctor: simultaneously too important to strike, but not important enough to pay them properly
19
672
4K
GPs earning over £156,000 will have to declare their earnings next year, no doubt in an attempt to shame them. Can you imagine if the partners of a law firm were forced to publically declare their take home? There is such a weird stigma around making money in healthcare
153
257
3K
How am I spending my strike day? Revising for a professional exam that’s mandatory for my progression, that I paid ~£450 for, and only 50% pass.
If I fail, I have to pay again.
Doctors pay is inadequate for our level of training, but worse when you consider the fees we pay
68
288
3K
Me: so you’re on furosemide, entresto, spironolactone and ramipril. Do you take your medications regularly?
Patient: of course I do Doc
The patient:
23
170
3K
I absolutely hate it when people refer to patients as “service users”. Feels inhuman and dystopian. Not as bad as “clients” though. Maybe I’m wrong, but I think patient is a more compassionate term
269
111
2K
Infection control be like:
Best question I’ve been asked as CD, are alpacas allowed to visit PICU… ?
181
168
2K
11
193
2K
A top secret doctors don’t want you to know: we write “loose stools”because we can’t spell diarrhoea
82
85
2K
Was just chatting to an HCA and a ward sister about our bank holiday hourly rates today. The HCA is on £24 an hour. I’m on £13.80.
We’re mugs, aren’t we?
27
132
2K
This article is massively disingenuous, bordering on malicious. I’ll break it down step by step. Brace yourselves, it’s yet another 🧵1/?
39
617
2K
There’s a lot of confusion about junior doctors at the moment. Who are they? How much are they paid? Why are they striking? I’m a junior doctor, and thought I’d do a thread on the topic, so that people can link to it when someone spouts misinformation
A 🧵
39
855
2K
What’s so amusing about the whole thing, is that even after pay restoration, doctors are a bargain. Whether it’s £28ph or £35ph, both are a joke for an ST8 Neurosurgeon. This country just doesn’t understand how much the NHS is subsidised by underpaying it’s staff
16
277
2K
This absolute weapon was in front of me in the queue for airport security at 4:30am this morning. Took the picture to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating
86
56
2K
To everyone complaining that the consultant strike is unsafe, where is your anger about Christmas day every year? Were you angry about the coronation bank holiday?
Or is it not actually about safety, and more because you just don’t like the idea of striking
19
226
2K
PSA: always announce your presence before walking through a patients curtain into their bed space. Especially if their partner is visiting. Even if they’ve had a life threatening emergency recently.
47
43
2K
Today I found out my trust has dropped the routine use of the white plastic apron… I’ll be honest, I shed a tear of joy
44
41
2K
I’ve been told my last thread on
#TipsForNewDocs
was too sensible, so I’ve decided to correct this.
1) When starting on your ward, it’s important to assert dominance. Sit on the ward clerks chair, and when you get called out, say nothing and stare them out.
88
151
2K
Oh to be a fly on the wall on strike day when a discharge coordinator bleeps the on call FY1 bleep to do a TTO when it’s the consultant cardiologist holding it
28
75
2K
“If doctors aren’t happy with their pay, they should get a different job”
Yeah, we are.
This is the most striking graph I’ve seen so far regarding the retention of doctors. Full pay restoration or watch the graph turn blue
30
437
1K
I love the symbiosis between juniors and consultants. Consultants draw upon decades of experience to make plans, carry out impressive technical procedures, give advice and assume ultimate responsibility. Juniors help them when they can’t work the computers
34
71
1K
Based on some recent conversations, I felt like a thread was needed on some of the issues surrounding medical training, and how they intersect with the long term workforce plan.
Buckle in for a long one
1/14 🧵
23
563
1K
The smartest person in any theatre is the anaesthetist. Not because of any difference in intellect or academic prowess, but because they’ve chosen the career that gets them best access to a chair
26
125
1K
Nadine Dorries would have definitely been the kind of nurse who would bleep a doctor about an unwell patient, wait 30 seconds then document in the notes “patient unwell, doctor not responding to bleeps” then go on her break
48
72
1K
People often ask what’s the worst thing I’ve seen as a doctor, or what’s shaken me the most. Truthfully, it was watching a medical student drink seven raw eggs for dinner last week whilst on call, then him saying that he does it daily. Unhinged doesn’t scratch the surface
41
36
1K
Doctors who are in full time training but have children: I have no idea how you do it. I can just about look after myself whilst working/training full time, adding in children would probably break me.
74
53
1K
My main take home from nights is that medical registrars are the most underpaid staff in the hospital
49
47
1K
In my opinion, university is the best place to learn the anatomy, physiology etc that is required to be a doctor.
Want to improve access to medicine? Improve funding for those studying undergraduate/postgraduate medical degrees.
Apprenticeships aren’t a good fit for medicine
35
149
1K
An actual on call room?! No more sleeping on the crusty mess sofa for me
72
21
1K
I’ve given the PE case some thought. One of the main diagnostic take homes I’ve taken from two years of doctoring, is that PE is one of the most humbling diagnoses out there. Anyone who says they’ve never made a mistake in medicine is either lying or mistaken.
1/8
59
126
1K
Louis is me, Kate is my consultant who asked me to write a discharge summary for a patient who had been in for five months who I’d never met
14
28
1K
Throwback to this time last year, when I called the on call haematologist one evening to get some advice, and when I got through he was at a choir recital. He insisted on holding the phone up to the choir so I could hear it before giving me any advice
21
8
1K
Did a random locum today and saw a few people I had clerked last week on nights. One chap said “I remember you, you saved my life”.
I just recognised the problem and arranged the required procedure, but still, what a feeling.
When it’s good, medicine is really good
22
39
1K
I see we’ve reached the point where medtwitter is debating whether doctors save lives. You honestly couldn’t make this up. Every time I think we’ve reached our most unserious, we manage to top it. I guess the surgeons who cut out my perfed appendix didn’t save my life? Honestly..
36
52
1K
First choice job accepted ✅
It’ll be bitter sweet leaving the amazing
@RUHBath
, but I’m going home!
Infinite misery training, come at me
68
8
995
Today I found out the answer to the question “what happens if the cardiac arrest bleep goes off whilst you’re on the toilet”
44
14
989
To anyone who passed a postgraduate exam whilst working full time:
I’m in awe of you
If you have kids as well… how did you defy the laws of space and time?
118
33
991
Do you know what that sound is? It’s a union resurrecting itself
15
96
970
Filling out prescriptions for psych meds, and saw someone was born in 2001. Thought “shouldn’t this person be under CAMHs?” The patient is 21. I’m in distress
20
19
969
You know what’s mad? That SALT don’t work weekends on a Hyper Acute Stroke Unit. Absolutely absurd.
63
21
969
Nice to find out that Ivory Tower management get nice sleeping pods and thousand pound coffeee machines. Meanwhile, in DGH land, I sleep on a crusty sofa in a dingey mess.
Resurrecting this video because it cracks me up every time I watch it
19
51
906
If I had a penny for every time a physio I’ve dated has broken up with me and started seeing one of my friends, I’d have two pennies. It’s not a lot, but it’s weird that it’s happened twice this year
48
7
897
Being an F1 on my second rotation, getting paid £13.85 an hour. A first year PA escalated to me to come and review a patient under their care who had deteriorated.
That PA was being paid 50% more than me per hour.
What experience in the workplace radicalized you?
2K
1K
10K
13
134
911
Can you imagine if you worked at a bank, and the bank insisted that you bring your own pens into work…
The NHS is a weird organisation man
32
57
888
It’s clear to me that many (including many HCPs) just don’t understand the role and responsibilities of a doctor.
It should be mandatory for every healthcare worker to shadow an FY1 on a weekend ward cover/night shift.
I think they might sing a different tune afterwards
54
67
875
It probably says everything about the current work load for junior doctors that all of the peers I know look forward to strike days just for some time off, despite it being unpaid
13
86
865
Wait until the public find out what it costs to get American/Canadian/Australian consultants to do extra contractual night shifts. The NHS is subsidised by underpaying it’s staff
23
123
855
I’ve just heard about a PA working on a reg rota. Am I mad for thinking that this has all got a bit far now? We all know that they’re valuable members of the team, but at a certain point we just need to put some boundaries down. Want to be a doctor? Go to med school
113
46
857
On today’s episode of weekend ward cover: “doctor, can you come and have a look at this rash on the patients face. It’s been there since June last year”
32
34
852
Can someone tell me why I’m spending my evenings after work studying for expensive MRCP exams?
It seems like having MRCP, or indeed having any formal medical training is completely unnecessary to perform complex procedures like UGIB endoscopy.
I feel like a mug
24
87
856
My ward has a bit of a reputation for being *that ward*. Came in this morning to find out someone had tried to set their cannula on fire overnight
30
13
838
I’m sick of the disrespect levelled at our profession by this government. What the hell would they know about how long it takes to become a doctor?
All they’re doing is turning the U.K. into a Dr production line for other English speaking countries
30
246
836
The first time I did CPR, resuscitation efforts had been going on for 20 minutes by the time I got on the chest. At that point, there was no structural integrity of his ribs at all. After it was called, I tried to go back to work, but ended up going to the toilets to cry. 1/2
If you’ve never seen CPR
REAL CPR
It’s brutal
When it’s someone you know
The emotional trauma is astronomical
284
2K
18K
35
60
830
Suncream is wild because we have this thing that protects against skin cancer and keeps you looking younger for longer, but people are like “nah I’ll take the cancer and I’m happy to look like a shoe by my early forties, as long as I can be a bit darker now”.
27
85
835
For me it’s definitely non clinical members of staff walking around wards telling clinical staff that they need to discharge any patients that can be discharged
15
25
825
Was minding my own business getting changed in theatres today, and a general surgical consultant I’d never met before grilled me on why I’d had an open rather than laprascopic appendicectomy. I dunno man, take it up with the Derriford general surgeons from 9 years ago
26
7
818
It’s been said before, but this is really silly isn’t it. Paying quite a lot of money to *attempt* an exam with a high failure rate that’s mandatory for progression.
All of my friends in other industries get their exams paid for, surely we should get our first sit paid for?
41
57
816
What’s the most underrated healthcare profession and why is it pharmacy?
56
121
802
6
70
804
I applied to IMT this year, the competition ratio has gone up by 43% in one year. If I see one more person say “there’s enough work to go around”, I may fully lose it.
We’re fighting each other like dogs for these posts, when there are gaps on every rota around the country
IMT ratio is now 4:1.
There are no locum posts. Either short or long term.
What are FY2s supposed to do?
26
57
427
29
120
794
Not sure who needs to hear this, but not every elderly person who’s pyrexic/delirious/not coping at home has a UTI
44
51
776
Want to know how bad NHS IT is? 75% of my tweets are sent whilst waiting for a computer to load.
21
24
759
When you go to close the curtain around the patient and it glides along the rails with no resistance
Today I did two of the most satisfying things in Emergency Medicine, relocated a shoulder and a ‘pulled elbow’ 🏥 What are your top two most satisfying things?!
78
4
168
20
36
756
You all asked and I’ll deliver. I matched with a girl on an app, and she instantly messaged me, asking if I wanted to meet up for wine + film. I had just finished an on call at work, so politely declined as it was late. Didn’t hear anything for the next two days. 1/?
67
32
750
To everyone commenting “didn’t happen”, fine, we don’t know if we did or it didn’t. But please stop commenting, it’s clogging up my mentions. Thanks Xx
45
5
720
Not usually one for this sort of thing, but feeling pretty proud today. Dr Tim Ricketts MBChB (Hons) MSc. Nice
33
5
753
I’m no cardiologist, but this seems like too much troponin to me
61
17
742
Have you noticed that it’s always consultants who are against striking. People who didn’t have £9000 a year fees, people who have a house already (and perhaps a second), and who often have tidy private practice side gigs. Plus, ignoring the evidence that strikes don’t cause harm
63
90
737
Student loans are a big reason why things are bad for my generation. Why? My current effective marginal tax rate is 47%. Half of new income gone. When I breach 50k a year, my marginal rate will be 67%. I’ll only see a third of the money I make over 50k. The U.K hates the young
38
67
727
When you have enough staff, medicine can be so much fun
17
42
719
The jobs of a medical registrar:
Seeing acutely unwell patients
Supervising their junior colleagues
Pest control
Catering issues
14
50
722
The age old debate in a junior doctors head: do I like the specialty, or do I just really like the team?
20
28
710
Doctors have our issues, but the way this country treats medical students is nothing short of disgraceful.
Not only are we randomly allocating our future doctors to random parts of the country against their will, we’re also randomly assigning some to a wait list.
This is cruel
Despite 6 years of medical school and never failing a single exam, I got put on a waiting list for a job… So disappointing
@UKFPO
31
47
588
13
161
701
@alex_abads
Also amusing when your exes appear there
I get it, I was punching, no need to rub it in
6
1
689
I hate seeing Doctors downplay what we do. Medicine is incredibly difficult. I don’t think it’s as conceptually difficult as something like physics, but the volume of information we need to recall, and the ability to think clearly in high pressure situations are high level skills
26
89
700
MRCP part 1 ✅
See you never, lysosomal storage diseases
27
2
696
Keir Starmer announces new plan to make the U.K the worlds biggest exporter of doctors to other countries
You should be able to get a GP appointment when you need one.
Labour will end the postcode lottery for GP appointments, training 7,500 more doctors a year and guaranteeing face-to-face appointments.
Vote Labour on Thursday 4 May to cut waiting times.
2K
333
2K
6
43
689
@tomhfh
I just don’t understand how anyone who works as a journalist could fail to grasp such simple concepts. The government’s treatment of the NHS is causing actual tangible harm to patients, and we have run out of ways to make our feelings known. It’s this or mass resignations
12
57
690
A reminder that at present, animals have more protection and regulation of who performs surgery on them than humans.
The UK has turned into the laughing stock of the medical world. How is every medical professional in the country not embarrassed about how far we have fallen?
7
175
698
Something I think about a lot is how doctors will give a family the worst news of their lives, with the emotional labour that entails, and then put a different face on to give the next patient positive news/send them home. I find it exhausting. O and G must be the worst for this
37
25
689
I often think about how the extreme environmental impact of hospitals. The easiest way we can make a difference? Don’t have the radiators in every corridor running at full blast in the middle of May…
45
31
692
Why are productivity gurus always blokes in their thirties with either no dependants or very supportive partners.
I’d much rather hear from a single parent who works a full time job, or someone who cares for a family member whilst staying sane.
They’re the impressive ones
21
61
690
Why isn’t ear micro suction funded by the NHS?
A 15 minute intervention that can reverse deafness for relatively low cost (when compared to some of our treatments).
I haven’t seen data but the number needed to treat must be almost 1…
The best money I’ve ever spent
99
43
689
Had a patient today complaining that it was hard to see his GP, and thinks that it’s because GPs only work 3 days a week. Had to explain that a typical GP partner works 12 hours a day, and that those who don’t are burnt out. The right wing press have a lot to answer for
24
42
665
Media medics, know your limitations please. Leave the professionals to it
16
44
654
Senior medical figures from around the world are incredulous at what is happening to U.K medicine.
We should all be embarrassed
9
121
660
Post F2 unemployment is becoming an increasing problem, whilst primary care is on it’s knees.
It’s time we let locally employed resident doctors into primary care.
No one can complain about the supervision requirements when MAPs with <1/3 the training are running loose
19
101
648
I’ve rotated to a hospital that’s an hours drive from my house/base hospital, often 25% longer. I just don’t know how people do this for years with rotational training, it’s knackering. Is it bad that GP is starting to look more attractive just so I can stay in the same place?
74
28
640
We will get a job that pays more. It’s called “Junior Doctor in Australia”
“Well go get a job that pays more”.
Thanks so much for vandalising the sign, will take you up on your advice!!
130
211
2K
10
41
630
@YodaCCP
Weird how the NHS was the most efficient healthcare system in Europe (and the world?) in 2010 though
17
29
628
By popular request, I thought I might start this years
#TipsForNewDocs
U.K. edition
1) When you’re on call, you don’t need to do everything. No, that Vitamin D is not urgent and does not need chasing overnight. Learn what needs doing and what can wait for the day team
16
46
625