Variety, challenge and uncertainty is the essence of general practice. Communication skills, empathy and sensitivity is the essence of being a GP.

A recent (and typical) morning surgery consisted of:

1.  A potential case of malignant melanoma 
2.  A possible diagnosis of Weil’s disease
3.  A lady who needed her hypertension monitored and who always asks about my children
4.  Someone who had become dysfunctional with a recurrence of their panic attacks and paranoia
5.  A person that turned out to have acute renal failure

...and a few coughs and colds

Now that is variety! The patients above all presented with a great deal of uncertainty in their history. They all needed to be dealt with using no resources other than being able to take a history and conduct an examination – blood tests taking 24 - 48 hours to return.

A great service is provided by general practice, and GPs will remain the bedrock of the NHS whatever model of delivery is used (traditional GP, walk-in centres or Darzi practices) are used, and regardless of whether you choose to be a salaried doctor or a partner.

If you enjoy intellectual challenge and the chance of continuity of care for patients and their families, GP is for you.

General practitioners will continue to have a critical role in the NHS, not only consulting with patients but also as providers and organisers of an increasing range of high quality services in the community, and as gatekeepers of hospital care. This pivotal position is dependent upon the clinical role of general practitioners with their patients and their ability to manage and provide leadership.

All general practitioners of the future will need to be generalists, clinicians, team players, life-long learners and managers (at least of themselves). Some will need to provide leadership for the larger and more complex primary care organisations that will emerge, and more widely for the primary care led NHS.

The personal qualities required to be a good GP include:

• Ability to care about patients and their relatives
• A commitment to providing high quality care
• An awareness of one's own limitations
• An ability to seek help when appropriate
• Commitment to keeping up to date and improving quality of one's own performance
• Appreciation of the value of team work
• Clinical competence
• Organisational ability
• Ability to manage oneself
• Good interpersonal and communication skills
• Ability to work with others
• Maintaining good practice
• Relating to the public
• Ability to deal with uncertainty

The personal skills assessed in the recruitment and selection process for entry to GP specialty training are:

• Clinical Knowledge & Expertise: Capacity to apply sound clinical knowledge & awareness to full investigation of problems
• Empathy & Sensitivity: Capacity & motivation to take in others’ perspectives & to treat others with understanding
• Communication Skills: Capacity to adjust behaviour & language as appropriate to needs of differing situations
• Conceptual Thinking & Problem Solving: Capacity to think beyond the obvious, with analytical and flexible mind
• Coping with Pressure: Capacity to recognise own limitations and develop appropriate coping mechanisms
• Organisation & Planning: Capacity to organise information/time effectively in a planned manner
• Managing Others & Team Involvement: Capacity to work effectively in partnership with others