Are you thinking about GP as a career? Watch this short film to learn why Cambridge students are choosing to become GPs.
The UK has been at the forefront of modern primary care development, and many countries continue to look to the NHS as a model to emulate”.
– Martin Roland, health services research, Primary Care Unit
Primary care is the foundation of our healthcare system. GP practices deal with over 90% of all patient contacts in the NHS; and UK residents see their GP on average six times a year.
Primary care has enormous potential to improve health outcomes for populations. GPs and their teams are positioned to intervene early in the disease process and coordinate the provision of care. Effective primary care is associated with reduced morbidity, increased longevity, and more equitable health outcomes.
GPs have a varied and often complex workload that provides new and different challenges and solutions every day. They provide ongoing and personal medical care for their patients as well as providing the gateway through which patients access specialist hospital care.
Thinking of GP as a career?
The Primary Care Unit (PCU) here at the Clinical School has a large and highly productive research and training programme, with 140 researchers exploring themes relevant to primary care, organised across ten separate research groups. Many of our researchers are also clinicians and we are a major training hub for primary care researchers and clinical academics.
PCU RESOURCES: Find out more about the primary care research that’s generated here and about the academic training opportunities we offer.
WEBPAGE: Hear about the pathways offered by a career in GP from five Cambridge students who attended the RCGP annual conference.
GPs select this specialty for all sorts of reasons – the Discover general practice pages from the Royal College of General Practitioners provide insight into the many and varied career paths.
GUIDANCE: You can see guidance on how to take forward your GP career on the RCGP website.
RESOURCES: Health Education England provides a wealth of resources on academic and clinical career pathways, which can be accessed from this webpage: Why Choose GP.
In hospitals diseases stay and people come and go; in general practice people stay and diseases come and go”.
– Simon Griffin, Professor of General Practice, Primary Care Unit/MRC Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge
Take action
Dr Kinnary Martin, GPEG Asst Director
UPDATES: subscribe to updates about Cambridge primary care research on the Primary Care Unit website and via our Twitter account @pcu_cambridge
TALKS: check our talks list and come along if you see a speaker or topic that interests you – you don’t usually need to book and you’ll be made very welcome
ADVICE: Assistant Director of GPEG, Dr Kinnary Martin, provides GP careers advice for student doctors at Cambridge. Feel free to email Dr Martin to request pointers or support.