Curious about GP

soo i was wondering whether general practitioners are required to carry out procedures and small surgeries as part of their job or are they not obliged to do it?

Reply 1

Dogtor

Original post by Anonymous

soo i was wondering whether general practitioners are required to carry out procedures and small surgeries as part of their job or are they not obliged to do it?

usually other staff in the practice will carry out basic procedures eg a phlebotomist for taking bloods, nurses for diabetes/ asthma reviews and cervical swabs, etc. However if a GP has a special interest in a subject area they may take extra qualifications to allow them to carry out certain procedures. At one of my GP placements there was a partner who had an extra dermatology qualification, so he was able to conduct minor surgical procedures such as basic cyst removal / carcinoma removal and the likes

Reply 2

GANFYD

Original post by Anonymous

soo i was wondering whether general practitioners are required to carry out procedures and small surgeries as part of their job or are they not obliged to do it?

Minor surgery is an Enhanced Service, which we have an option to sign up to and then we get paid an item of service payment for each procedure we do (amount varies up to around £80, depending on the procedure, if I remember correctly). There are lots of rules and regulations that govern it, including the specific skills and competencies a GP must have to be able to take part. This is usually an interest and a training course.

When I trained,this was a core part of our training and I had to do minor ops (toenail removals, ughhhh) but it is now optional, though most practices sign up to it, as it is a source of revenue (if you consider £88 for a Dr and a nurse for 30 minutes to be adequate remuneration.....) and provides a useful service for our patients, as well as letting GPs broaden their horizons and develop a special interest. If you do not want to do it, you do not have to.

I have one friend who has taken this further and is now commissioned to offer a full "lumps and bumps" surgery service and does hernia repairs, larger lipoma excisions, etc as well as working as a GP.

thank you guysss!!!

ahhh the training which includes the toenail removal sounds like a nightmare. how much of things like that were you exposed to as a trainee(i’m quite squeamish)

Reply 5

GANFYD

Original post by A.O123

ahhh the training which includes the toenail removal sounds like a nightmare. how much of things like that were you exposed to as a trainee(i’m quite squeamish)

This is a loooong time ago. But we had to personally do a certain number of "lesion" removals, toenails, injections, etc. This is not the case now!

Reply 6

A.O123

ohhh i see. Thank you very much for your time!!

Reply 7

nexttime

Side note: In some countries e.g. Russia GPs are expected to be able to do appendectomies, C-sections and chest drains, in case they are in a situation where they are days away from help!

There is also a 'rural GP' role in the UK, which I don't think goes quite that far but does involve being more independent, doing more procedures. (By "rural" they mean like remote Scottish isles, not just in the countryside!)

Reply 8

A.O123

not sure if anyone has asked something like this but can anyone explain whether general practitioners have to do procedures such as toe nail removals in the uk (because i watched an American youtuber who was a gp that was trained to do so.)
i’m kinda squeamish about stuff like that although i can deal with blood.Any knowledge of gp roles would be SUPER helpful!