Here's what I know about doctors.

They care about life and people. It's kind of why they do the job in the first place.

They're smart. They were always clever. They knew it from an early age.

They're confident. They're smart enough to know how hard a job it is and yet, they knew they're up for it.

If they want to be a surgeon, they're not only smart and confident but they're also very physically competent. I know many smart, confident doctors who have failed at being surgeons because their hand trembles too much or they're all fingers and thumbs. No wonder they're also really good at golf.

They're so smart and confident that they get in a mountain of debt at an early age. It's the doctors who rack up the 6 figure student debts. Because they're smart and confident enough to know that in the long run they'll pay it off. They have a calling.

Once they've got their qualification they know they've got to do some dog work to earn their stripes. That's why their system makes them be resident doctors first. To give them lifesaving situations in high pressure and low sleep environments to learn the zen of doctors.

Then they specialise, earn a fortune and die happy knowing they saved lives and achieved a lifetime's work over the long term.

Doctors are special. There are very few people who are capable of doing it. When you're hurt or sick a doctor literally saves your life. And you are always grateful.

So when smart, confident, dedicated lifesavers like doctors ask their employers whether working them 12 days in a row, up to 16 hours a day, is such a good idea, I tend to think that's a good question posed by smart people.

It's a question I fail to hear the DHB's answering with the threat of strike action by junior doctors looming.

I suspect the answer is we don't have enough money and we don't have enough doctors, so working cheap(ish) junior doctors to the bone is the only way we can keep people alive which, after all, is hospital's core business.

I find it hard not to side with the doctors given my selfish preference for wanting the best care and expertise when I'm either sick or hurt.

I would have more sympathy for the DHBs if, rather than saying junior doctors are selfish and rocking the boat that we've kept afloat for too long, they told the truth. Just like housing we have a supply and demand problem with our doctors.

We don't have enough doctors and so sadly, the taxpayers and DHBs are going to have to pay more. The doctors have the trump card because we need them more than they need us.