Shift systems, either full or partial, operate in larger units. Applications for a consultant post may now proceed. Consultant posts in community gynaecology are being developed. It sounds like a very arduous training programme. Traditionally hospital medicine and normal family life have not mixed.
Some doctors elect to stay single until the future looks more assured.
For men this may not be a problem, but for women it is. It used to be said that a woman needed to be that bit better than the men to get the jobs and succeed. That is less true today. All the Colleges are making efforts to recruit women into their respective specialties. The hospital career structure is moderately inflexible.