General practitioner

Greater continuity with a general practitioner has been shown to reduce the need for out-of-hours services and acute hospital admittance.

The term general practitioner or GP is common in the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Australia, Canada, Singapore, South Africa, New Zealand and other Commonwealth countries.

General practice is an academic and scientific discipline with its own educational content, research, evidence base and clinical activity.

The internship requires the candidate to work in all departments for a stipulated period of time, to undergo hands-on training in treating patients.

The Federation of Family Physicians' Associations of India (FFPAI) is an organization which has a connection with more than 8000 general practitioners through having affiliated membership.

Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) then confers permanent registration, after which the candidate may choose to practice as a GP or opt for specialty training.

[citation needed] The studies consist of six years at university (common to all medical specialities), and four years as a resident (interne) : This ends with a doctorate, a research work which usually consist of a statistical study of cases to propose a care strategy for a specific condition (in an epidemiological, diagnostic, or therapeutic point of view).

[20] General Practitioners in Greece may either work as private specialists or for the National Healthcare Service, ESY (Εθνικό Σύστημα Υγείας, ΕΣΥ).

Each team is multidisciplinary and typically includes GPs, community pediatricians, nurses, physiotherapists and social workers, together with ancillary staff.

[27] Becoming a GP in Spain involves studying medicine for 6 years, passing a competitive national exam called MIR (Medico Interno Residente) and undergoing a 4-year training program.

The assessment is work based and involves completing a logbook that ensures all the expected skills, abilities and aptitudes have been acquired by the end of the training period.

[28][29] In the Russian Federation, the General Practitioner's Regulation was put into effect in 1992, after which medical schools started training in the relevant specialty.

Until 2005, those wishing to become a general practitioner of medicine had to do a minimum of the following postgraduate training: This process changed under the programme Modernising Medical Careers.

In 2008, a requirement was introduced for physicians to succeed in the MRCGP assessments in order to be issued with a certificate of completion of their specialty training (CCT) in general practice.

After passing the assessments, they are eligible to use the post-nominal letters MRCGP (so long as the physicians continued to pay membership fees to the RCGP, though many do not).

This Clinical Skills Assessment (CSA) is held on three or four occasions throughout the year and takes place at the renovated headquarters of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP), at 30 Euston Square, London.

Finally, throughout the year the physician must complete an electronic portfolio which is made up of case-based discussions, critique of videoed consultations and reflective entries into a "learning log".

Visits to GP surgeries are free in all countries of the United Kingdom, but charges for prescriptions are applied in England (except for those over 60, under 18, and those on low incomes and welfare).

General practitioners are no longer required to work unsociable hours and get paid to some extent according to their performance, (e.g. numbers of patients treated, what treatments were administered, and the health of their catchment area, through the Quality and Outcomes Framework).

Workload in general practice is escalating – it has increased 16% over the last seven years, according to the latest research – yet investment in our service has steadily declined over the last decade and the number of GPs has not risen in step with patient demand ...

At that time both terms (if used within the US) referred to someone who completed medical school and the one-year required internship, and then worked as a general family doctor.

This would make a physician a non-board eligible general practitioner able to qualify and obtain a license to practice medicine in 47 of the 50 United States of America.

Changes in demographics and the growing complexities of the developing bodies of knowledge made it necessary to produce more highly trained surgeons and other specialists.

[citation needed] What was not anticipated by many physicians is that an option to be a generalist would lose its prestige and be further degraded by a growing bureaucracy of insurance and hospitals requiring board certification.

It was due to several factors, notably the lesser prestige associated with the young specialty, the lower pay, and the increasingly frustrating practice environment.

[55] There is a community-based campaign in support of these so-called Non-VR doctors being granted full and permanent recognition of their experience and expertise, as fully identical with the previous generation of pre-1996 "grandfathered" GPs.

The additional year, or Advanced Rural Skills Training (ARST)[57] can be conducted in various locations from Tertiary Hospitals to Small General Practice.

The competent authority pathway is a work-based place assessment process to support International Medical Graduates (IMGs) wishing to work in General Practice.

Fee-for-service arrangements still exist with other funders such as Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) and Ministry of Social Development (MSD), as well as receiving co-payments from patients to top-up the capitation-based funding.

In NZ new graduates must complete the GPEP (General Practice Education Program) Stages I and II in order to be granted the title Fellowship of the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners (FRNZCGP), which includes the PRIMEX assessment and further CME and Peer group learning sessions as directed by the RNZCGP.