To wonder why it takes a GP 7 years to train?

[Swedes2Turnips1]

When all they seem to do is say 'I will write you a letter of referral' or 'You will have to make an appointment with the practice nurse for that'. What do they actually do these days?

Keep going itscoldtoday, you're on a roll!

Couldn't have put it better myself

GP's are medical gradutaes with PostGraduate clinical experience and academic acheivement. Specialist training for general practice aims to produce doctors who, on completion of training will be able to provide personal and continuing care to individuals and families in the community. They will also have the management skills relative to primary care and be able to audit their work with a view to improving performance.

The training programme commences after Foundation Programme posts (or equivalent) are completed. The requirements for general practice training are laid in UK legislation. General practice specialist training consists of 36 months in approved posts. Ultimately all those in training will spend 18 months in a general practice environment, currently deaneries offer a mixture training post opportunities with between 12 and 18 months in general practice and the rest as hospital based training posts. The final 12 months of GP specialist training is always in a general practice post.

Entry into GP specialist training is competitive and involves 3 stages of application: on-line application, shortlisting using a written applied knowledge and situational judgement test, and, for Stage 3, an assessment centre process. All the stages require the applicant to meet the person specification for GP training and the essential competencies as outlined elsewhere on the GP training scheme

SATISFACTORY COMPLETION OF EACH HOSPITAL PLACEMENT
As each hospital post is completed, you should receive a "statement of satisfactory completion" also known as a VTR2 form. These forms are signed by the hospital consultant to confirm the post has been completed satisfactorily and endorsed by the Director of Postgraduate General Practice Education to show that the post was an approved post.

IT IS AN ARDUOUS, RIGOROUS, TRAINING!!!!

I don't see anything pathetic on this thread Journey apart from the OP, which was pretty lamely argued.
Itscoldtoday's post was very informative, I thought, and clarified some of the other comments from relatives of GPs about how long and exacting the training is.
But while we're at it, let's hear it for poor old NHS librarians, who are paid buttons to provide essential information services to researchers and practitioners alike, for little recognition. My argument is as relevant as yours on this particular thread...

Heh - misread your post, Liath, and thought you were accusing me of being a troll! Or possibly on a troll...

Oh, itscoldtoday, you left out the librarians

Apologies, Marina , and I can confirm you do do a very fine job!

As SM said. It is shorter and easier to become a GP than a consultant I believe. Mmy brother who is a consultant (and father) were doing exams for a lot longer but it's pretty hard to do either.

Now the issue of whether the NHS is efficiently run which is nothing to do with the GP's responsibility is another issue entirely.

Nooooo, not the British Medical Library

I can make all your citations go phut into the ether you know, just by pressing a few little buttons
Tony McSean is my special friend. The people on Cochrane are my special friends...

She'll 'shush' you into submission.

Black belt in 'shushing', librarians have.

Yikes

My personal solution is to lure annoying researchers into the rolling stacks with the promise of some rare back issues that have not been Jstored, and then splat them

shouldn't that have been a lower case, quiet ejaculation????

Don't joke, that happened to me once!

And I was thinner then. Now I am considerably wider I would be a more risky situation

Ha well, that would get you nowhere, see because we are scientists and we don't care about rare old issues, so hah!

It took six years to train me as an accoutant and I don't get to pass all the things I can't solve to someone elseand I work just as hard as a GP and earn less.

Having said that... I can make up the answers to my problems and no-one dies. In fact quite often no-one is any the wiser...

Bloody terrifying isn't it MB
I favour the Philip Larkin School of Reader Services...he once found some graffiti in the Brynmor Jones which read "Fuck off Philip Larkin". So he added, "No, YOU fuck off. Philip Larkin". Can you tell I've had an interesting day at the coalface? But almost certainly not as difficult as a GP's (or a researcher's, or a teacher's)

Medics do a fine job,often above and beyond.

Takes 7 years of GRUELLING training because there is an awful lot to learn about the human body and GPs have to be all rounders.

They then have to do a great deal of training,exams and updates alongside day to day job,and junior docs still work silly hours.

I do work within the NHS and it amazes me how much the Docs have to take on.For instance an on call junior doc I bleeped on nights was the main point of contact for 4 acute wards,so this means about 100 people to 1 doc,and it only takes 1 person to be acutely poorly to take up their attention,the poor guys' bleep never stopped!Added to this if there was a cardiac arrest they would drop everything to attend that too.Its madness out there,I tell you.They do a good job under very difficult circumstances.

DP would not be here today were it not for a broad variety of hospital specialties who eventually realised why he went into acute kidney failure (requiring dialysis),was coughing up blood and nearly died from a horrid PE.(Turns out he had a very rare condition).In the last 14 weeks he has seen urologists/nephrologists/rheumatologists/ENT/opthalmologists/cardiologists!!Everyone has been fantastic and I cannot thank them all enough,for if left undiagnosed DP probably would not be here now.(Though he is a bit fed up of hospital food,now:O)

Nice one humbug! I think that's the crux of the issue for me - however hard my job can be - I never have to tell someone they are dying or have lost someone or that they need to let go.

"I don't get to pass all the things I can't solve to someone else"

Are you trying to kick the thread back off again?!

Maybe if I claimed to have found a primitive life form down there (always a possibility Tamum) you might be tempted
I can proudly claim that it took me a whole year to obtain my professional qualification, much of which was spent on pub crawls in the Peak District, but I'm still considered very good at my job and I know a really taxing career when I see one

Northerner - I once had to tell someone I'd lost £50m

It wasn't real money but was still the biggest mistake of my career (so far...)