A campaign highlighting why GPs love their jobs has taken off in recent days, using the moniker ‘Why GP?’.
The Because Project – started by Yorkshire-based GP and trainer Dr Dom Patterson – aims to encourage GPs to share the ‘wonder and privilege’ of being a GP.
Dr Patterson told Pulse he has launched the campaign because he noticed that ‘while well meaning and well produced’, the RCGP’s high-profile recruitment video launched earlier this year ‘just didn’t connect at all with the the younger students, F2s and trainees I spoke to’.
In response, scores of GPs have been sharing their reasons for being a GP on Twitter using the #whyGP hashtag and on the Why GP? website.
Dr Patterson works for Health Education England as a regional deputy director for postgraduate GP education and is an RCGP Council member, although he says the project is ‘a personal one and nothing to do with any of these roles’.
He told Pulse: ‘It is clear to me that in spite of all the current difficulties, the vast majority of GPs still love their jobs. This project simply tries to get people to stop and reflect on what it is about their job that means, in spite of everything else, they still love it.’
The Government has promised it will recruit an extra 5,000 GPs by 2020 but, despite pledges, last week Pulse reported that up to half of training places remain unfilled in some parts of England this year.
Because i can recognise that your parents getting divorced is causing your tummy pain. And i know not to request a CT scan. #WhyGP
— Ahmed Rashid (@Dr_A_Rashid) July 26, 2015
#whyGP amazing trust and privileged access to patients narratives not witnessed in any other health care profession @DocDomP
— Kirsty Baldwin (@kirstybaldwin3) July 29, 2015
#WhyGP?: because working with whole family, in community, have greater chance of sorting systemic issues affecting patient’s health & care
— Duncan Shrewsbury (@DuncanShrew) July 25, 2015
#Whygp #thebecauseprojectBecause I never have to use the words “I’m sorry, there is no more we can do”
— DrDean (@DeanEggitt) July 29, 2015
