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Doctor (including junior doctors, GPs and consultants)

Between 2006 and 2009, 3.9% of employed doctoral graduates, or 555 graduates are known to have been working as GP or consultants, six months after graduation with 0.3% of employed doctoral graduates, or 40 employed doctoral graduates, are known to have been working as junior doctors.

Job description

Doctoral level junior doctors, GPs and consultants are classified in the ‘other common doctoral occupations' cluster of doctoral occupations.

Junior doctors and consultants

Junior doctors provide primary and continuing medical care for patients. They are often the first contact for patients needing medical services. They take account of physical, emotional and social factors when diagnosing illness and recommending the required treatment. Patients may be referred to hospital clinics for further assessment and/or treatment.

Junior doctors will eventually decide to expand their career portfolio and specialise in a specific area of medicine, of which the most common are anaesthetics, emergency medicine, general medicine, general surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, paediatrics, psychiatry, trauma and orthopaedics.  Following specialism, career progression can lead to consultancy posts.  Opportunities in other areas exist such as IT, human resource management, medical education, or training. Hospital doctors in both junior and senior positions increasingly work as part of a team alongside other health care professionals to discuss care options for patients and their families and help patients to take responsibility for their own health.

GPs

General practitioners (GPs) are usually the first port of call for patients seeking medical treatment. They take account of physical, emotional and social factors when diagnosing illness and then recommend appropriate courses of action. Patients may be referred to hospital clinics for further assessment and/or treatment.

GPs may run specialist clinics within the practice for patients with specific conditions. They increasingly work as part of a team alongside other health care professionals to discuss care options for patients and their families and help patients to take responsibility for their own health.

GPs who are partners in a practice are also responsible for the running of the practice, which involves a range of administrative activities, such as employing staff, managing contracts and working within strict budgets.

GPs are subject to very strict regulation and must observe impartiality and confidentiality at all times.

Typically, a GP should be available to hold morning, afternoon and/or evening surgeries (usually eight surgeries a week) between 8.00am and around 6.30pm. Recent government initiatives have seen GPs agree to open surgeries on two extra out-of-hours sessions per week. This may mean the surgery is open until 8.00pm on certain evenings or on a Saturday morning.

GPs also make home visits when patients are unable to attend the surgery.

Some GPs work 'out of hours' (on-call work) and during weekends and/or public holidays.

Typical work activities

  • Responding to medical/health problems presented by patients including history taking, diagnosis, investigation, treatment and referral as appropriate
  • Commissioning health care by liaising with medical professionals in the community and hospitals
  • Promoting health education in conjunction with other health professionals;
  • Organising preventative medical programmes for individual patients
  • Providing specialist clinics for specific conditions or for certain groups, e.g. Diabetes, smoking cessation, new babies
  • Meeting targets set by the government for specific treatments e.g. child immunisations
  • Discussing the development of new pharmaceutical products with pharmaceutical sales representatives
  • Managing resources to service targets as effectively as possible - for example, using ‘choose and book'
  • Using IT skills.  Some practices have one partner who specialises in the use of IT within the practice, but all will be expected to have basic abilities for work such as maintaining patients' records using specific packages
  • Keeping up to date with medical developments, new drugs, treatments and medications, including complementary medicine
  • Observing and assessing the work of trainee general practitioners (GPs) and  medical students and teaching at medical schools or hospitals, particularly for GPs with teaching responsibilities, and who may have PhD or equivalent qualifications
  • Maintaining a portfolio of continuing professional development (CPD) activities

Entry requirements

A degree in medicine recognised by the General Medical Council (GMC)  is essential for entry into this profession.

Entry to medical school is becoming a popular but competitive option for postgraduates, given the expanded number of graduate entry schemes available. While some medical schools prefer science graduates, others consider graduates holding any relevant degree. Further information on general entry to medicine and medical careers is available from Medschools Online , the British Medical Association (BMA)  and NHS Careers . Access courses, usually lasting one year, are also available for graduates whose degree is not in an appropriate area. See Widening Access to Medical School (WAMS)  for details.

Ideally, candidates should offer some relevant voluntary/paid work experience in support of their application. Volunteering opportunities can be found at Medschools Online  and Do-it .

Candidates will need to show evidence of the following:

  • Personal qualities such as compassion, resourcefulness, stamina, motivation and perseverance
  • The ability to work within a multidisciplinary team
  • Excellent communication skills
  • Leadership skills
  • Satisfactory sources of funding - you may need a written guarantee of your ability to finance the course
  • A realistic idea of what the work involves
  • An understanding of the demands of the course, which can be considerably more intensive than other degree programmes

Entry into medicine is extremely competitive and a prospective candidate will have to undergo very rigorous training, testing and questioning.

Salary

  • Junior doctors in their first year of postgraduate foundation training earn a basic salary and are also usually paid a supplement or banding according to the rotation. This is based on the intensity of work and the hours worked over 40 per week. This may amount to an average salary of £33,000 in the first year. In their second year, they can earn up to £41,000, including the supplement.
  • The average salary of hospital doctors five years after graduation from medical school is between £35,000 - £40,000.
  • The basic pay for full-time consultants is £74,504 - £100,446 (salary figures from British Medical Association (BMA)
  • Doctors in GP training earn between £43,000 and £68,000.
  • Salaried GPs earn between £53,000 and £80,000.
  • GPs who are self-employed and hold NHS contracts can expect to earn between £80,000 and £120,000, depending on the services they provide and how they choose to provide them (all salary data from NHS Careers).

Sector and disciplinary information

Sector information

Doctoral graduates from 2006-9 working in this occupation were known to be employed in the following profiled sectors six months after graduation:

Disciplinary background

A medical background is necessary for this role.

Career stories

None available

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