WHAT THE BLEEP?

As a GP you are the first point of contact with the NHS for most patients. You get to become part of the community getting to know patients and families, focusing on their entire health and wellbeing, combining physical, psychological and social aspects of care, as well as getting the rare opportunity of continuity of care with your patient population. With a big shift in healthcare to managing patients in the community there are an ever growing number of new community services offered by general practices, with GPs at the cutting edge. 

PERSONALITY

• An extensive knowledge of a wide range of conditions

• Brilliant diagnostic skills

• Excellent time management

• Listening and communicating effectively with patients to build and sustain relationships

AVERAGE WEEK

Every day varies but typically most GPs hold two clinic sessions per day with home visits and administration fitted around them. The target consultation time is typically 10 minutes per patient, seeing around 30-40 patients per day. GPs may also have specialist interests with clinics tailored to the speciality that may be done in a hospital or help in their practice. GPs will tend to work from 8am until 6.30pm with the option for additional out of hours work.

BEST BITS

• Continuity of care - get to build trusted relationships with the patient and families over a long time.

• Flexible career with optional out of hours work.

• Working in the community with health promotion as well as diagnosis and treatment.

• Able to take a variety of work or range of ages, patients and conditions.

CHALLENGES

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• Often limited contact with other health professionals or colleagues.

• Dealing with challenging patients (and those with firmly set agendas), seeing patients who have a low threshold for self management of common conditions.

• "And doctor "here's a list of all my other concerns."

• Keeping up to date with the current services available in your area.