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?

That’s such a shame !!! I guess it’s down to the funding ! Keep my fingers crossed something opens up for u !! X

I had an asthma review recently conducted by a nurse. A couple of weeks later I saw my GP for medicine prescription review and he overruled the asthma nurse. I have now been put on new asthma meds and I notice an improvement already. I wasn't particularly symptomatic but I have noticed how much better my breathing is when I swim.

I felt the nurse was more restricted in what she could do and if certain boxes weren't ticked she couldn't prescribe the new meds. I felt the GP had more freedom. I could be wrong

I'm not surprised. Judging by our GP surgery, they do fuck all.

I know ANPs that earn more than salaried GPs at a couple of practices - so its not always about costs

My brother and his wife aren't GP's but one is an A&E doctor and one is general medicine.
Neither have been successful in jobs this year despite their experience and qualifications.

It is an absolute disgrace!

There is SO MUCH need for doctors but not enough job availability due to funding.

They never thought they'd be in this position. And have so much debt still from their training about 10 years ago.

My brother is currently working nights in a warehouse, and volunteering in a hospital as a porter and my SIL has become a paid "nanny" for her sisters children!! Whilst they figure out what to do but sadly they are applying for jobs abroad and looking like this is the likely option for them.

It's an UTTER disgrace.

I am a hospital consultant in my mid fifties. Very worried about the state of the NHS.

I have realised that I will never understand medical workforce planning. I don’t have a core trainee this rotation due to issues with the other half of their role, so the post was removed. We have repeatedly tried to get a locum but we had no applicants. So are recruiting from India. This is a London teaching hospital. I would have snapped up a local resident.

And re becoming a private GP, I can’t speak for the OP, but I think a few years experience in the NHS would better prepare for the private sector, where there is much more solo working.

🤣😳 took me a while to spot it, thank you!

I think otters may do a better job in some respects, I’ve always quite liked them

Totally missing the point of this thread?!

Other ideas OP are to contact your local Training Hub if there is one (I work in a very under-resourced area with a very active hub so hopefully there is wherever you are) - they may have fellowship roles that you can apply for; our local ones are reserved for doctors within 5 years of CCT. Also talk to your LMC for both practical and emotional support. They probably have a wellbeing team at the very least.

Me too on the Otters. Cats, dogs & otters re: new world order! Lol

That’s not quite accurate. The funding was initially ringfenced for GPs only so lots of PCNs tried to recruit because they couldn’t use the funding for any other roles. No longer the case since April.

They couldn’t recruit their own registrars as they have to be additional so not already employed by the PCN.

Thats a shame you’re over 2 years qualified. Good luck with your search, I’m sure something will come up if you reach out, although it may involve some travel.

DH was feeling very ill just before Christmas. He'd had a temperature of 39°c, cough, slightly breathless, fatigued. We tried to get a GP appointment and were assigned an ANP appointment. She listened to his chest and said that she thought he might have flu, but would prescribe antibiotics 'in case' and an inhaler to make his breathing easier. When I pointed out that his heart rate of 100 was double his normal resting heart rate and I thought he was a bit more unwell than oral antibiotics and an inhaler, she shrugged and said 'well go to A & E then.'

At A & E they found that his CRP was >600 and he had a severe pneumonia. He was on IV antibiotics for 4 days and we sprung him out of hospital on Christmas Eve after a bit of begging.

I was a nurse and I think nursing is a really important job, but the ANP role should be really specific with clear boundaries.

I am so shocked and you have a right to be so pissed off to be honest after all that training. I assumed you would walk into a job as a GP. When did that change?

How much does GPing pay in the UK-100-150k a year? I am guessing.

I am in the US and of course our GPs make 200-350k a year and it is seen as a good career that is pretty AI proof as is nursing which is becoming much more popular as a choice due to it being more AI proof....the nurses here make 100k plus and a friend's husband just specialized as an anaesthetic administering nurse (high level of training) and he shared he will make 250 k a year as a specialist nurse so those kind of salaries really draw people to the career here.

Can you do telephone doctoring? Here we can get a same day appointment if we are willing to do a telephone appointment so wondering if that is a possibility over there so is not location specific. It's so unfair after all your training.

I shared those salaries to say is moving overseas possible? Oz also has decent salaries I think. Our local hospital has medics from all over the world.

Wes Streeting got quite popular due to the way he came after NHS managers. People cheered at his plans to scrap NHS England, cut ICBs in half and close many of the “quangos”. What is now coming out of the woodwork is that his plans are similar for the clinical colleagues such as GPs and consultants. He’s all for cost cutting but he was very smart in how he went about it, starting with the hated management. Once he comes for Keir Starmer’s job or becomes the chancellor we are really in trouble.

@Lougle imagine if you weren’t a nurse and hadn’t had the knowledge to argue with the ANP. It’s terrifying.

Yes! He was pretty poorly. In fact there was a bit of a to-do at A&E because he'd been triaged to sit in a chair while they waited for bloods and x-ray, then they realised how poorly he was. A few weeks later I took my DD into A&E and had the same triage nurse and she said 'I remember your husband...I missed that one.' She had registered that she couldn't get an O2 saturation and that his fingers were blanched, and she even muttered that maybe he had an infectious process, but it hadn't occurred to her that he was heading for sepsis. But to be fair, he compensated pretty well, and he seemed just a bit shivery, so I don't blame her.

@Lougle Ex-nurse here - with that CRP reading I would have thought ICU territory! Glad he's okay now.

This was relation to the several posts made about the rise of GP surgeries using ANPs rather than GPs. I thought I was highlighting the value of GPs to the patient. The reason I was doing that was to support the case made by others that GPs are invaluable and yet are struggling to find posts.

its an absolutely horrendous situation. It’s currently the same with nurses and other NHS staff.
My niece has just qualified as a nurse and she has been offered a health care assistant role as there are no nursing jobs in the local area.

I'm sorry this happened to your husband.
If you didn't at the time, it would be really helpful if you reported it. Otherwise this will all stay under the radar - as most of these cases do.

After I submitted a significant event report at my surgery, they changed from using ANPs for triage to only giving them preselected patients chosen as suitable by doctors, which is much safer.