Academic GPs
There are also opportunities for GPs to join Academic Units.
Many academic departments now provide relevant education and
training, with an increasing number of diploma courses and masters
degrees being developed for postgraduate students. Courses have
been responsive to the changing needs of primary care and aim to
offer modularity with improved accessibility and a menu to allow
personal development in teaching, research and a range of
contemporary issues.
Dr Richard Neal, an academic GP from Wales
How long have you been in General
Practice?
I qualified as a GP in 1994.
What made you decide to become a
GP?
A belief that I was actually a good enough doctor to have that
responsibility.
What are your current roles? Please
list.
I am a Senior Lecturer in General Practice and predominantly a
researcher. I do research myself and lead research teams within our
unit in the North Wales Clinical School. My main area of interest
is researching the diagnosis and management of cancer in general
practice. I am involved to a lesser degree in the education of
medical students, mainly in their placement in practices and in
assessment of students. I spend a day and a half a week doing
general practice within different practices in Flintshire, and I do
some out-of-hours clinical work.
How many hours would you say are in
your average working week?
50-60
How do you spend those hours?
|
Activity
|
Time expressed in hours
|
|
Seeing patients in surgery
|
9
|
|
Seeing patient in home visits
|
1
|
|
Seeing patients out of hours
|
10
|
|
Teaching / Training
|
5
|
|
Writing for publications
|
2
|
|
Doing research
|
30
|
What is your involvement with the
College (if any)?
I am a member of the Research Group
and a member of Welsh Council.
Are you involved in any other
professional organisations or committees?
- National Cancer Research Institute Primary
Care Clinical Studies Group
- Department of Health Lung Cancer Advisory
Group
- National Collaborating Centre for Cancer
Management Group
- Member of Flintshire Local Health Board
What has been your career high point
so far? / What do you enjoy most about general
practice?
Completing a PhD; Publishing original research. Academic general
practice has the huge advantage of combining clinical work with
research and teaching. This provides a stimulating and varied
working week. As a registrar I enjoyed reading research papers and
combining this with evidence based practice. This led rather
fortuitously to a research training fellowship (and a PhD) and then
a succession of increasingly senior research posts.
What do you enjoy
least?
Getting papers rejected from journals.
What three words would you use to
describe General Practice?
Paradoxical, paradigm,
pathos.
What do you know about general
practice now that you wish you had known when you
started?
Its huge financial orientation.
If you were making your career choice
now, what would you choose?
Same again, unless I was
allowed to be a wildlife photographer.