As you may gather from my name I am a pharmacist.
The NHS today is probably like the airline and probably every other industry in the world in that they want to get as much out of you in return for the littlest reward they can get away with.
Yes a senior Dr. can command salaries of £60k but the number of hours away from home can equate to a pilot. Night shifts, on-calls overnight in a single bed on the ward, 24 hour shifts. Rather similar to pilot's hours if you ask me.
I find that the NHS is a bad model for running a healthcare system as "Free Health" leads to abuse of the system and in turn leads to a higher workload for us practitioners.
I find most of my day involved with elderly or unemployed people returning day after day to claim their "free prescriptions", this is due to lonliness and boredom. They get up in the morning and think,what will I do today? Ding! I'll go to the Dr then he/she'll give me a prescription then I'll go to the pharmacy and get stuff for free and that'll fill my morning. Believe me it is the same faces everyday you see who don't need treatment, they just want company. It's not a social health system we have it is a social life for the elderly. My friend is a paramedic and says the same, old buddies deciding they want a week-end in the hospital every other week as a wee break for them. In the end what I'm saying is that it gets repetitive.
I at the moment am doing my ATPL's. The money as a pilot may be less but as soon as I get out of a system that is totally abused and for which I pay for with my taxes the better!