General GP Registrar GP Training

A day in the life of a GP Registrar

The working life of a registrar is very different to a junior doctor in hospital. Although the routine will be different from practice to practice, most will be based around having two surgeries (AM and PM), time for going over the patients and problems you have seen, administration (including dictating referrals and completing forms), and on some days, home visits.

Here is a breakdown of a typical day in practice early on in your ST3 year:

08.30-08.45

Arrive at surgery (most days!), turn your computer on, login to the clinical system, check if there are any messages or queries for you with the reception team.

09.00 – 11.30 

Morning surgery, 15 minute appointments. Try to dictate referral letters as I go, while all details fresh in my mind, and to save time later (not always possible if a busy surgery).

11.30 – 12.30

Complete all paperwork, outstanding referrals and sign stack of repeat prescriptions. Discuss difficult cases with trainer. Go over home visit requests. Call some of the patients to clarify details / give advice. Where appropriate, ask patients to attend the surgery.

12.30 – 13.30

Home visits (1-2 visits), look through letters from clinic, blood reports, imaging results via DocMan or clinical system.

13.30-14.30

Practice meeting with all partners, practice manager and pharmacist. Review of progress on QOF points. Lunch provided if you are lucky! If no meeting, you may have time to pop out to grab some lunch, or have lunch with some of the team in the staff room.

14.30 – 15.30

Tutorial with trainer, or take part in specialised clinics some weeks e.g. baby clinic, diabetic clinic, asthma / COPD clinic. If no tutorial or clinic, you may have time to enter some learning log entries in your e-portfolio.

15.30 – 17.30

Afternoon surgery, often with a few less booked patients than the moring clinic.

17.30 – 18.00

Admin from afternoon clinic, go over cases with trainer, then HOME! May finish later if on call. Your practice may take part in extended hours, so you may do an evening clinic once a week – this could finish as late as 7.30pm.

Of course, you won’t necessarily be doing home visits every day (although it is likely most days as a trainee), and one half day every week you should have protected VTS teaching with other registrars from your training scheme (AKA “playschool”). As well as this, you should be having regular tutorials with your trainer in practice. You also have one session a week for self directed learning. You may be able to use this to oragnise a chance to go to clinics to fill any gaps in your rotation e.g. ENT, musculoskeletal medicine, ophthalmology etc. As you progress through your training you will eventually work towards seeing patients in 10 minute appointments with clinics similar to the qualified GPs in the practice.

Every practice has a slightly different way of operating their clinics. Some will have longer surgeries in the morning, some do more telephone triage and there may be a different mix of appointments booked in advance and those booked on the day (which may have more acute presentations). In some cases you may take part in extended hours and have an early morning or evening clinic.

You will also have to do at least 72 hours of Out of Hours (OOH) per 12 months in practice to get signed off – this could include evening, night or weekend shifts.

What is your working day like as a GP registrar? If you are in a practice that does a lot of telephone consultations or triage, how do you find it? How often do you have home visits? We’d love to hear from you so please do leave a comment or discuss it on our Facebook group!

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