About Me

Ok, now that I've set a few ground rules, before I start with "the ranting", I might as well give people a quick run down about me, so you know where i'm coming from:

Name: Karnesh Patel
Age: 25
Location: London, England (I'd say UK, but I know it'd confuse some people)
Nationality: British (born and raised)
Religion: Hindu
Profession: Doctor (medical, not PhD...etc...)

Previously:

Currently unemployed (yes you heard right). I took time out from the completion of my pre-registration house officer (PRHO) year (which you do after graduating from medical school in the UK) in August 2004, having obtained full registration with the General Medical Council (GMC) and being licensed to practice medicine. The reason? I'd become fed up with the NHS and the people in it, and I'd always wanted to work abroad. I started work on my United States Medical Licensing Examinations (USMLE's), and in-between, carried out locum (also known as temping/moonlighting) work to keep my skills current and pay the bills, travelled, and taught medical students for their exams (I like teaching). After passing 2 of the 3 exams (needed to apply for training in the USA) in June 2005, I began applying again for full-time work in the NHS, as I felt I was out of full-time work for too long and needed to get back into things, despite having had locum work. Nothing. Not a single interview or job offer. And so, I kept on with the USMLE's, and even began applying to residency programs in the USA (training programs you take up there after finishing medical school). By the end of November 2005, I had finished all the required USMLE's, and was just awaiting results. In the meantime I continued applying for jobs in the UK again. Locum work had become scarcer since August, when it turned out a fair number of UK trained doctors were unemployed, either from lack of jobs in the NHS, or from people being "recruited" abroad over them (the EU and India in general). By the end of January 2006, my USMLE results were released (almost 3 months late - the weak excuse given was that marking schemes were being "recalibrated" - and ensuring that I didn't receive a single interview from the residency programs that I applied to, by not having all my paperwork in order, when it should have been ready months earlier), and I still did not have a job for the start of UK posts in February. After a quick trip to New York at the start of March for "The Scramble" (a last minute application process for those people who did not get a residency program position, similar to "Clearing" at A-levels in the UK) which was unsuccessful, I returned to the UK.

Currently:

I am looking for work, in any speciality that will take me, in any location that I can get to, for any duration possible (assuming it's sensible - a 1 day post in Scotland when i'm in London is just ridiculous, and you may laugh but it happens). I cannot re-apply for US programs again until August/September when the next years' application process starts, so I need to occupy myself for the next 6-12 months. I am also due to be looking at Australia, in the possibility of getting a job there. Considering the current state of jobs available for junior doctors, and the laughable system used to shortlist them for posts (I'll talk all about this next time I think), I probably do stand more chance of a job in Australia than here, even though I'm UK trained. The British Government would have you believe that people such as myself are not willing to apply for certain specialities or are not willing to goto the middle of nowhere, and that's why we're unemployed. That's just plain bollocks. I've applied for every speciality possible, and I'm not afraid of going to the Hebrides if it gets me a job. Of course, the Government (like most Governments) is very good at ignoring what it wants to, or making up facts and figures for what it cannot, in order to deceive the General Public about the actual situation in question.