I’m a GP

[WutheringBites]

here’s the thing; I can’t get a job. And lots of us who completed training in the past two years can’t either. It’s a national problem (well, at least across England) and there’s thousands of us in the same boat.
I didn’t expect to earn millions as a doctor, but I did think there would always be work for a nice GP. AIBU?

Oh I forgot this https://www.bma.org.uk/our-campaigns/gp-campaigns/uk-wide/tackling-gp-underemployment-and-unemployment-in-the-uk

YANBU and since you describe yourself as a nice GP, I wish you would replace one of the not-so-nice GPs at my local surgery.

That makes no sense, I'm so sorry to hear it. Thank you for you hard work getting qualified, hope you find a good job soon.

It's a national disgrace.

I'm so sorry you have trained for so long and hard to be unemployed at CCT.
Meanwhile the government is funding endless Physician Assistants with Micky Mouse masters degrees and expecting the general public to be grateful. That of course is dependent on us actually managing to secure an appointment with one.
It is a scandal in the making. I don't blame our doctors for fleeing to countries who actually treat them well.

I try hard to be nice, not in a walk-over way, but coz I know how tough it can be to be a patient and I want to do my best for patients.

I mean, goodness only knows if I actually manage it all the time…

I am really sorry to hear this - would you consider coming to Wales? Definitely jobs here and it’s a fabulous country (yes I am biased). I know you will have many reasons that you want to work where you are currently based and it must be supremely frustrating to have trained so hard and then have no opportunities. But to get off the starting blocks I would recommend going where the work is. Easy for me to say I know. But then I have also worked all around the UK where the opportunity presented itself - and further afield too.

Come to Ireland!

Unbelievable really. Are you tied to a certain area or are you able to move?

I’d move but I’m stuck (husband also a dr, children in specific schools, etc etc)

I feel so trapped.

It’s awful, what is the problem in your opinion is it lack of places or competition from overqualified overseas doctors?

I'm a practice nurse.
This week I had a 1-1 meeting with a woman commisioned by the ICB to visit surgeries and talk to staff about the vision that the NHS has for GP surgeries.
She categorically stated to me that NHS England is looking at how to reduce GPs and GP hours. And she's been commissioned to work out how to do it (as part of a wider team, obviously).
I had to ask her to repeat what she'd just said to me. I thought I must have misheard.
The focus, she tells me, is going to be on paramedic practitioners, advanced nurse practitioners, and upskilling practice nurses.
That's where the money is going to be spent now, she said.
I already do all the chronic disease reviews at my surgery; asthma, COPD, diabetes, CHD, hypertension, etc. I've been asked by the surgery for a while to do my prescribing training. I do want to do it but I have a young family so the level of study required on top of my working hours puts me off. But I'm the only practice nurse who isnt a prescriber now as all the other nurses have done it, and I'm being told that ultimately I have now got to do it in order to retain my position.
A team of paramedic practitioners and advanced nurse practitioners at my surgery do all the 'on the day' urgent care. They have all qualified in prescribing courses.
We have mental health co-ordinators drafted in to us from the icb to manage all the patients with mental health difficulties.
There's not a lot left for the GPs to actually do.
And we're all much, much cheaper of course.
Which is obviously why NHS England has this plan to reduce GP employment - and use us instead.

Rural Scotland needs you. Cheap housing. Fresh air. Countryside. Good schools.

In the last few weeks I have found out why.
There is a network of Primary Care Networks across the country, 170 in fact. They each have a budget of about £10m.

Ours has a large executive team, probably costs about £1m. They evidently organise out of hours hubs, have some paramedics instead of probably district nurses, do a lot of social prescribing, are an interface with pharmacies. They also seem to have a lot of committees, reports and data shit.

They contacted me to invite me to a virtual network for peer support because I might find socialising challenging and implied I used my GP too much. Evidently their IT people ran a report with poor parameters and their comms people wrote a patronising email that assumed the patients were an ill educated blob. They have apologised.

However, this sort of nonsense is likely replicated across the country and extrapolates to a layer of crapocracy that costs £1.7 million. Apparently Wes supports it.

We need doctors on the front line, doctoring and far less of the crapocracy.

Shame we only hear the doctors complain about lack of resources rather than waste of resources.

It’s been a problem for years. But I never understand why all these grade A students are still applying to medicine. They must be intelligent and yet still they apply to medicine which is a pretty miserable experience as a career.

I'm so sorry, it is very very wrong.

A couple of weeks ago I spent the day interviewing for some ARRS roles, amazing candidates, heartbreaking stories of the job hunting process 😢

They contacted me to invite me to a virtual network for peer support because I might find socialising challenging and implied I used my GP too much.

Wow, do you actually go a lot?

I hate to say this, but I think the market for private GPs is increasing

A team of paramedic practitioners and advanced nurse practitioners at my surgery do all the 'on the day' urgent care. They have all qualified in prescribing courses.

This does kind of make sense what with the ageing population & the fact they need a lot more medical staff to cater for them.

I hate to say this, but I think the market for private GPs is increasing

Didn't Wes Streeting say young people are increasingly turning to private

Edited because I confused your thread with something else. Sorry you can’t move. Can you do online consulting instead perhaps?

I'm sorry to hear of this.

Congratulations on an extremely challenging qualification to obtain.

I'm an allied HCP. I'd rather not say which. But Drs are being eroded. Advanced practitioners (nurses, paramedics) are well paid (band 8) so say £50-60k for arguments sake. But a GP is (correct me if I'm wrong ) around £100,000 (so a saving of half !) so they'll eventually probably run a practice on all ANPs with one token GP at the helm. The hospital is going the same way. Healthcare assistants are becoming more and more advanced in their skills (replacing nurses ) and nurses are now taking on far more advanced and specialised roles more akin.to drs. It's a clever way of keeping wages down.

I feel for you. You shouldn't be in this position. I don't have any useful advice I'm afraid. Drs are some of the most kind hearted and genuinely wonderful people I've met in my career. You deserve to reap the rewards of your hard work. I hope you do.

Sorry to hear this.

Is there no locumming jobs ? Not that I know that much about the system but I assumed that locums were always in demand to fill gaps .

@WutheringBites have you tried registering with private health care providers? My health care plan gives me access to GP appointments whenever I need one. I’m also a therapist registered with BUPA, as apart from self employment and EAP work, counselling jobs are few and far between.

It’s impossible to get an appointment at my GP practice. Everyone has to call at 8am, whether you need a routine appointment or something more urgent. It’s usual that once you get through you are 34th or more in the call queue. Then, you get a message saying all the appointments have gone.

When I became breathless, I tried to get an appointment but couldn’t. I called 111, who referred me back to my GP. In desperation, I drove to the practice and asked the receptionist for an appointment and explained why. She said someone would call me.

Eventually at 3.30pm a practice nurse called me. When I told her my problem, she said to go straight to A & E. I’d waited seven and a half hours for that advice!

I was subsequently admitted with multiple blood clots in both lungs.

I’m very upset to read that you can’t get a job. We need more GPs to provide a decent service.