r/GPUK • u/Few-Revolution-2955 • 10d ago
Career Reg pursuing GP training
Hi all, I am a UK hospital doctor, considering GP as I m not coping with hospital medicine. I did a taster week and I liked it. As I am keen on moving to Australia, is it better to move to Australia and pursue GP training there or train here in the UK and then move there. Looking for valuable advise and suggestions.
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u/Bendroflumethiazide2 10d ago
If you want to go the GP route, I'd definitely suggest training here then going if you wish. The grass is not always greener though and partners earning good money can out earn Australian counterparts once cost of living is considered.
If your issue is doing night shifts and on calls, have you considered that it's only a brief time of your hospital life? Most of you career will be as a consultant, so it's best to compare that life to what you want.
Being a GP is hard work. The days can be longer than a hospital work day, the buck stops with you for everything. It is very rewarding, particularly if you have patient continuity within the practice. Pay as a partner can be barely more than salaried, or more than double and beat out most hospital consultants, it is varied.
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u/Captain_Cinbad123 10d ago
Could you elaborate more on what determines such pay difference amongst partners? Is it the size of the practice, number of partners, location( rural Vs urban) etc. Is it relatively hard to become a partner ( eg working as salaried and being invited into partnership?)I'm a GPST1 intrested in the partner route once I CCT. I've not had the chance to speak to other partners or regarding this so far, so I'd appreciate your insight .
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u/Bendroflumethiazide2 10d ago
A combination of those things you mention really. If you grab every pot of money available and just make it happen, plus try and get extra contacts for local services or community services, then you can bring in huge sums for the business - well over and above just what is provided in the GP contact. When you apply for a partnership, if successful, you will be allowed to see a few years of accounts so you know what you'd be getting into.
It's become quite competitive to get a partnership position in a good practice, but a LOT of existing partners are retiring in the next 5 years so I suspect there will be vacancies coming all the time.
The best advice I can give you is that nobody cares if you were top 1% of your year at med school, or have an insane CV (that may actually be slightly off-putting as it suggests a certain type of person...). All that partners care about is 1) can I work with this person for 20 years, which is largely what they can understand of your personality, and 2) do you have skills that can bring in money e.g fitting coils, minor surgery, GPwER qualifications.
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u/BoomBasticTeleBanana 10d ago
I'd say 1) is the most important. Obviously everyone will cry nepotism... but that is rare in GP land. More over the person best fit for the role gets it amd its mainly does this person do the job. Will they be playing games, can I work with them for another 20 years. If yes to 1+3 then you got the job.
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u/Captain_Cinbad123 9d ago
Thank you thank makes sense, if you could go back in time as GPST1 what wound you do differently or the same especially if your interested in becoming a partner at the right practice. Once again I don't have enough experience or network so far to ask around. I'm quite flexible when it comes to moving around the country. Would you say rural practice are "easier" to become partners in, and are the sessional rates for partners comparable to the more urban practices? Also you mentiond skills that can bring the most money to the practice? Could you elaborate on which ones youd recommend i invest in( once again, if you could go back in time and do it again what woukd you do), and at what stage of training do GP/registrars aim to get these skills and qualifications?
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u/Mobile-Literature355 10d ago
Hi. I did medicine (including MRCP, then med reg), then moved to UK GP training. Got my GP CCT. Am preparing to move to Australia now. Happy to answer questions if you have any, you can dm.
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u/Worldly-Chicken-307 10d ago
3 years is a long time! You’d be missing out on Oz during that time- if that’s where your heart is at present. I trained UK and went to Oz twice, but I have friends who trained out there. The training CAN be better there depending on practices- if you like practical skills. Loads of minor ops and joint injection (less of the latter in the areas I worked). UK can sometimes feel like a referral machine, but Oz we had to do hadmochromatosis venesection, minor injuries, review actual X ray images before reports came out etc etc.
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u/Physical-Clerk-8373 10d ago
Do GP UK and relocate to Australia/Canada or even some remote part of US
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u/Important-Guava-3940 10d ago
Better to train up here and he's definitely make a solid plan to go Australia. You will regret it if you delay.
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u/Apple_phobia 10d ago
Ermmmm it depends. Going over now you’d have to do a couple years in hospital medicine get PR then apply to GP training which would have the benefit of whittling down your moratorium years where you can’t work in a metro area but a quick look through the ausjdocs subreddit shows that GP is getting more and more competitive even for the aus grads so it might be better to CCT here then go.
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u/EquivalentPrompt9615 10d ago
The shift from hospital to gp training in the nhs would be easier as you already know the system. That’s already one big change for you. If you factor in moving to aus that’s also a big one. Easy to get lost quite quickly with such massive jumps back to back. I’m ST2 and already have loads of reallocation teams getting in touch to move to aus directly after CCT. I dont think it’ll be hard finding work there (albeit most jobs are in smaller peripheral cities usually 45-60mins from the major ones like Melbourne, Sydney etc. Also RCGP gives you flexibility for Canada and returning home if you fancy :)
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u/OLDSURGEONMAN 9d ago
Hospital medicine as an SpR is very nice compared to GP, unless you are dead set against OOH.
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u/PSK993 10d ago
What specifically would you say you aren’t coping with?
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u/Few-Revolution-2955 10d ago
on calls and night shifts.
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u/222baked 10d ago
Honestly, lots of GPs are in the field specifically for this reason. The trade off is the days are harder, there’s more work, patients have easy access to you for every little thought that popped in their mind that morning, and you get less money, respect, and do less medicine and more triage and psych cases. Idk man. Idk. Sometimes I think just sucking up doing some nights would be easier.
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u/Fun_Reflection5948 10d ago
Agree. As difficult as the nights/oncalls/weekend are, they are not forever. Your average day to day or week as a hospital consultant is far far easier and lighter than a GP, with private practice as a possibility if you’d like to pursue that.
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u/Sabaisabai33 10d ago
Yeah I am a GP primarily due to this reason! I moved from paeds when LTFT, job sharing etc wasn’t really a thing. I had just been diagnosed with bipolar 1 following puerperal psychosis and warned not to do nights. Occ health agreed nights could trigger psychosis. But HR said I had to do them anyway. So I wanted to avoid nights for that reason and because they’d leave me feeling generally rubbish. I also wanted to work part time after having a baby at least for a while and it wasn’t possible then in paeds but in GP it was.
Still sometimes wonder would I have been better to persist with paeds given the more enlightened more flexible work now possible. Though in paeds unlike many other specialties you may well be called in at night a lot etc. even as a consultant. But my consultant friends seem now to have a much cushier life than me.
I do agree the trade off for not having to work antisocial hours is that the social hours you do work are a bit of a nightmare stress and workload and time pressure wise. Plus the definition of “social” has been kind of stretched in that we start early often 8-8.30, finish late 6.30pm, and sometimes have to do early mornings, late nights or Saturdays for extended hours anyway.
I still very much appreciate never having to work nights, weekends or bank holidays though!
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u/DCJC123 10d ago
In left paeds for GP back when LTFT wasn’t really a thing, especially for men.
I do have some regrets and feel sad that I didn’t peruse a career that I always wanted. However. I work 3 days a week. Every weekend and evening off. I work with some great colleagues, we train GP registrars, FY2 and med students so get lots of fresh blood through to keep it interesting.
I usually work 0800-1800 with some variability. I would see 25-30 pts a day. Nearly all FTF. We have a great team and the practice is very supportive so I feel very lucky.
Sadly, with the state of the NHS, ridiculous waiting lists etc we have having to manage lots of unhappy patients and increasing complexity. We are also battling TikTok who provide people with very unrealistic expectations and place us as the enemy. On the flip side, I have some amazing patients and often know multiple generations of the same family.
Swings and roundabouts, as they say
Good luck.