to think GP's have a very demanding job?

[LDNmummy]

Watching Question Time and there are very differing views on what being a GP is like. David Starkey (what a twunt) seems to think it is 'cushty', while another panelist disagree's.

I always thought GP's work in a demanding job, but don't have experience or insight into it.

I sometimes think it must be like being a teacher, as it is not overtly demanding and stressful like jobs placed within a large hospital for instance, and people do not see what goes on behind the scenes so the stresses and strains that come with the job, can be overlooked by the general public, IYSWIM.

[lilbreeze]

gps do seem to have a reputation among hospital doctors for being underworked and overpaid - and certainly I think that is what has attracted my bil to the job :)

[ipanicked]

My GP told me yesterday that FT work in her practise is only 8 sessions (ie 4 days a week) and she can have the other day at home with her kids and do her admin. although I am of her hours and her pay (am a hospital doctor) I couldn't be a GP - I'd always be in a state of nervous anxiety that I'd miss that brain tumour plus I am rubbish at managing well people

[crystalglasses]

I know a lot of GPs and none work a full week, all have second home and one has 4 - all bought since the new contract a few years ago. Unfortunately most never worked in any occupation outside medicine and their children are also training for a medical career. Only the ones whose children are not qualified doctors have any idea about work outside the NHS yet they sit in judgement. I am not speaking behind their back - they know my views and they have admitted that they have a cushy number.

[flipflapdoodle]

Leslie33 - thank you - it is lovely to hear from someone who feels their GP is doing a good job.

Herethereandeverywhere - I'm sorry but I refer probably less than 2% of patients I see. Conditions that were managed in hospital a few years ago are increasingly being managed in primary care, the intensity and complexity of primary care is increasing year on year. You seem to have very little understanding of the job. Your description of the life style is a million miles from my experience.

[Hecubasdaughter]

Strikes me as a stressful job. Obviously there are crap ones but that's the same as any profession.

[Pedallleur]

re the contracts. They were set by the Govt. and as I understand it the targets that were set were v.low and were queried by the GPs who were told to accept them 'or else'. They accepted them, surpassed them and angered the Govt. Think the then Health Minister had to apologize to them about remarks he made. Gps still have to do the required training and if you choose to be a Surgeon/GP/A&E doctor then it's up to you. A lot of women prefer GP work as it can fit in with family life.

[LDNmummy]

Didn't mean to post and run.

There seems to be a 50/50 split in opinion on this. In my experience some GP's are crap but some really do go the extra mile. My current GP's surgery is brilliant and I appreciate the effort they put in.

Considering the comments, I am now wondering if this is about location as opposed to the job just being easy across the board and maybe inner city GP's do have it a lot harder than those in quieter areas.

I do think there must be an intense feeling of pressure when you know it is down to you to not miss potentially deadly health conditions when you are inundated with mundane health problems that can carry the same symptoms.

I suppose my DH being a teacher makes me a little more bias toward the view that GP's are actually misrepresented highly in the media as teachers get the same stick.

[lesley33]

My GP works in a city area - and I think you are right location may make a big difference to the job.In my last practice my great GP was in an inner city area and was really dedicated to helping drug addicts and alcoholics and there are actually a very high number registered at the surgery. He made his job much harder by trying to provide a great service to those most in need.

I also think the best GPs are the ones that patients with perhaps more complicated chronic health problems or ongoing mh problems tend to choose to go to. In the surgery I am in I will see anyone for mionor stuff. But my DP has bipolar and for issues like this we always book in to see our really great GP. So I think he probably gets the harder more difficult cases to deal with as a result of being so good.

[OldernotWiser47]

GP here also- and I certainly don't have more then 1 house (but then, I have more then 1 child...), nor earn anywhere near 100K. Work plenty of hours, though.
It take a lot of knowledge to know when a child has "viral infection", and to find the few among the many who are seriously unwell. Also, there is a lot more going on "behind the scenes" during a consultation then you see- it takes years of learning and experience to make a consultation appear like a social chat, and still come out with the correct diagnosis. As so often, if you know your job, it appears easy to do to other people.
What is stressfull is that you never know what comes in the door, every patient (even the one attending for a chat every week) MAY present with serious illness, and you need to exclude that every time they present...
And then, being "at home with the kids doing admin" would by other people be called "working from home"- it is NOT time off!! And then CPD, like most professionals.

NB a collegue of mine (other surgery up the road) hung himself a few weeks ago, over some incident at the surgery... Cushty, eh?

[hiddenhome]

gp = cushy lifestyle formulae

children = viral infection
women = depressed
post natal women = post natal depression
men = need to adjust their lifestyle and stop drinking/smoking

[pyjamalover]

Don't forget to that to become a GP these Drs have worked incredibly hard for many years, including working harder than many of their friends at school and university, years being overworked and underpaid as hospital junior Drs, post graduate exams, keeping up to date with current practise etc etc. A GP will see thousands of people with fever, and a handful of times in their career with see meningococcal sepsis (the bacterial equivalent of being hit by a lorry), the skills don't come out of nowhere. They deserve a decent income, and for Drs in all specialties the hours get a bit more civilised as you get more senior. (thank goodness!)

I'm an A&E Dr and I work hard in a more tangible way - running around constantly for 12 hour night shifts, but in some ways general practice is a harder specialty despite the 'cushiness' of sitting in a comfy chair during consultations.

[givemushypeasachance]

My Mum is the practice manager of a GP surgery where I've done a bit of admin work as a student, and my sister is a junior doctor about to start specialist GP training. From everything I've heard and seen I wouldn't want to do be a GP - or try to manage a group of them! (Mum has a book called "managing professionals is like herding cats" - sounds about right to me) There are particular horror stories about the patient who set themselves on fire in the waiting room, and other patients trying to stab the staff, but mostly it would be the standard consultations that wore me down.

From updating computer codes for various conditions I'd say about 99% of the patients registered at the surgery had depression; the idea of seeing six depressed patients every hour and still remaining empathic and professional while listening to their problems would kill me! My sister advices that the exams they do to select for training places focus a lot of importance on the "fluffy" side of things like empathy and communication these days - it's all "as your doctor I'm here to support you to work through this" and "I understand how that must be very difficult for you"; I really couldn't do it without either sounding totally false or taking some of the better drugs myself.

[DangerousMouse]

My DP is a GP, he is a partner in a rural practice. He leaves home at 8am, stops for lunch around 3pm for about 20mins then works the afternoon shift, he is usually home around 8.30pm, although sometimes not till 10pm.

He has a 'half day' when he gets home around 4pm..

He really enjoys his job, but he works very hard and he gets emotionally drained as he gets attached to patients, especially when he visits the nursing homes.

He obviously earns a decent wage but it is nothing like quoted in the press, and it fluctuates so much that some months he doesnt earn enough to pay the bills!

[LDNmummy]

older I am so sorry to hear that

[MrsHoolie]

I have been at my GP practice quite a bit in the last two years as my son has Asthma.
They seem very very busy but I have total faith in all of them and they always can tell if I need to take my son to hospital or not.
Yes they can earn well but then they have alot of knowledge. (mind you I have alot of skill and don't earn much as a musician).
They're hardly on footballer's wages!

[Winkly]

My GP is.excellent. She diagnosed my gallstones over the phone and lost a lunch break to examine me and refer me to hospital. I doubt this was unusual for her. YANBU.

[lyndie]

GP here too. I don't have too much to add but suffice to say I don't earn anywhere near the fabled £100K.

I would like to say however how on earth would someone know how hard or easy a job is without doing it themselves? I would have thought being a waitress for instance looks easy, but having never done, I don't think I could say whether its easy or hard.

As well as 2 surgeries a day (10 minutes per appointment or 5 for an emergency), we have lots of home visits, signing off results and prescriptions, writing referral letters, speaking to relatives and colleagues in the hospital, training students, meetings, audit, QOF work, keeping up to date with new developments and reading journals, writing reports, liase with pharmacies/SS/HV/district nurses .................. and drop everything if there's an emergency, I think its demanding enough.

[sophe29]

Another GP here!
HiddenHome - that made me laugh! Some days thats definitely what it feels like!

I think generally (as in life) there are good people and there are bad people and people who are just out to suck the system dry who become GPs. Most GPs work incredibly hard and try to do their upmost best for all their patients. Somedays we get it right, sometimes it all goes a bit wrong.

Those who comment on a 4 day week not being full time, yes I see why you think that, but in those 4 days they do work, I highly doubt they are only working 9-5. More like 7-7 minimum!

Seeing 30+ patients a day is exhausting. Many are simple coughs and colds and offering general reassurances. But every day I see people who need someone to just tell their troubles to. Anyone who has listened to a friend who has problems, whether health related or not, you know how emotionally exhausting it can be. Well imagine offering that level of support to 5 or 6 people every day? Thats more what my job is like. As much as I love it, it is hard to leave a patient's problem when they leave the surgery, yet that is what we have to do 6 times an hour. It is draining but so rewarding at the same time. As others have mentioned it is also lots of managing risk, trying not to end up on the front page of the Daily Wail "GP missed my Cancer/tumour/infection etc". I often lie awake at night worrying that I missed a child with meningitis or that depressed man is going to kill himself and I could have done more to help.

Also, many are not just involved in seeing patients, but they teach, train GPs to be, organise local services etc etc. Now the government also wants us to manage the whole NHS - something no government has succeeding in doing effectively, so why on earth they think we can do it, is beyond me!!

[mamadoc]

I'm a hospital Dr. I think GPs work as hard as I do and that is very hard.
I don't earn 100k and I know only a very few, very senior Drs nearing the end of their careers who have worked up to that much.
A GP practice is actually a small business. The partners don't get a salary they get a share of the profits so you might say that those who earn a lot are just very good at what they do which would be applauded in other walks of life.
As someone else said upthread being a GP is not for me because I am crap with minor illness. I really could not cope with seeing all the coughs and colds and verrucas and still staying alert for the serious stuff.
The person who said it's just about referring people is sort of right but it's the knowing WHO to refer that so important. If GPs referred everything that walks through their door to a specialist then hospitals would just collapse

[Shonajoy]

I have the best gp ever. And nurse at his practice. She basically sent my smear off as my cervix looked odd, without consulting the doctor. I had a 4cm tumour and any delays would have made my survival chances so much worse. I've been in an out of hospital for the past two years, and speak to my gp over the phone regularly- he will phone to check my meds are working, how my pain is, side effects. He's gone way and above that other gps I've had. And he's great with the kids too- when my 17 year old ds went to see him about acne,he was really helpful and caring, and didnt embarrass son at all.

If I phone in the morning, I get seen the next day or the same day, they seem to take extra care as I've had cancer. I hope he never leaves!

Interesting on the salary though-my SIL ( horrible money obesessed woman) is a partner in her own surgery with one other doctor, and has appointed her husband practice manager using the title Doctor Gordon smith (name changed)He IS a doctor, but of philosophy! Isn't that really disingenuous?! He doesn't see patients but from reading it you'd thing he was a doctor and not related to her as she used her maiden name .

Her dad is planning on leaving all his money to charity, and she's said she's going to contest the will! She constantly moans about money but surely with her being head of practice and having the bigger investment in it, she must be earning £100k and her husband often makes jokes about him being the best paid practice manager. It all sounds a bit dodgy to me. I really hope they get caught out, and oh it's a very busy practice but maybe her bedside manner is better at work - she's a bitter old bag the rest of the time x

[Misspixietrix]

I've met some right arseholes sods of GPs. One of which put my Ds's life in danger simply by not checking him and declaring he only had a virus. He ended up being rushed to the hospital the next day v.v. ill because she had misdiagnosed him. Even the complaints procedure was arse about tit. We moved surgeries and it took over a year to find his 'lost' records. The complaint process also took over a year and suprise suprise was found in her favour. BUT and its a big BUT I think it is all about being lucky enough to find the one who loves their job and works damn hard at it. We moved surgeries after said incident and X is the best GP I've ever had. He has a brilliant team and him and his practice nurse have been right every single time with me and the DCs. I've seen how busy the surgery gets and don't think he has a cushy job at all.

[ParsingFancy]

Zombie thread.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

[mamadoc]

Oh whoops. Don't know how that happened. It came up in my active convos somehow. I wasn't searching for it or anything. Odd

[LeadingToGadeBank]

I've yet to meet a GP who doesn't treat me like a number in the ten minute slot allocated.

So far they have all been robotic, little or no eye contact in favour of the PC monitor, no compassion/bedside manner/"how do you feel.

They worked very hard to get their qualification I'm sure. It takes 7 years to qualify doesn't it? And it keeps them very happy, what with the £90k plus a year salary.

Also, much of their work seems to be offloaded onto Practise Nurses who have diagnosis/ dispensing qualifications. That is, of the unqualified surgery Receptionist favours you in her 'triage'