INTERNET

General practice in the United Kingdom

T he internet is probably the easiest way to findinformation on a career in general practice in theUnited Kingdom. The national recruitment office

coordinates recruitment to general practice schemesthroughout England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Thewebsite www.gprecruitment.org.uk is designed to helpdoctors who want to train for general practice to identifyavailable opportunities and make informed judgmentsabout where they wish to train. It includes eligibilityrequirements, deanery information, and the answers tothe most frequently asked questions. This site alsoserves as a gateway to individual deanery and vocationaltraining scheme sites and covers the process of applyingto the respective deaneries during the periods ofrecruitment.

I am an aspiring general practitioner from the NorthWestern deanery and I have found the North Westerndeanery web pages extremely useful, particularly the logbook designed for foreign graduates. The North Westerndeanery has been the first deanery to design web pages ofthis kind in the United Kingdom, and nearly half of thedoctors currently working in this region are foreigngraduates. The details are on the website of the Depart-ment of Postgraduate Medicine and Dentistry (www.pgmd.man.ac.uk).

You can find job vacancies in general practice atwww.bmjcareers.com in the general practice appoint-ments section. The next key website for training in general

practice is www.jcptgp.org.uk. The advice on this siteisbased on the understanding of the Joint CommitteeofPostgraduate Training in General Practice (JCPTGP) ofcurrent legislation and the regulatory framework ofgeneral medical practice at the time of publication. It is,however, not a legal document and it cannot cover indetail every aspect of NHS (vocational training) regula-tions. The registration aspects for a vocational traineeare well updated at www.gmc-uk.org.

www.rcgp.org.uk has an attractive guide to theworkings of the Royal College of General Practitioners(RCGP), the largest membership organisation in theUnited Kingdom solely for general practitioners. Thiswebsite has detailed sections on the college and facul-ties, services and libraries, quality and standards, edu-cation and conferences, membership and exams,publications and the British Journal of General Practice,networks, the newsroom, research, and the onlinebook store. The website is useful for doctors wishing tobecome members or fellows of the RCGP or doctorswishing to promote excellence in general practice.

Another site worth mentioning, and available free forregistration for UK based general practitioners, is www.gpnotebook.co.uk, It claims to be an online encyclopaediaof medicine that provides a trusted immediate referenceresource for clinicians in the United Kingdom and inter-nationally. Further reading at www.bmjcareers.com j

Roopa Venktesh SHO in adult medicineRoyal Oldham Hospital, Oldham OL1 2JHroopavenktesh@yahoo.co.uk

BOOKS

The Help Directory

You can fully assess a tool’s usefulness only afterextensive testing in the real world. I first cameacross the Help Directory after a traumatic

night’s work in the emergency department, during whichit would have been incredibly useful to have a list ofpatient support groups for a wide range of conditions. Aninternet search led me to the ukselfhelp.info website,where I was quickly persuaded to obtain both the paperand CD Rom editions of the directory for the veryreasonable sum of £20. Having used the Help Directoryfor almost two years now, I can safely say that this wasthe most useful and constructive £20 that I have everspent.

Human beings have always required a little help fromtheir friends, finding inner strength and comfort in theexperiences of others. From humble beginnings as localgatherings of like-minded individuals, many supportgroups have embraced the internet and blossomed intoglobe spanning support communities. So effective arethese organisations that they now number many thou-sands, offering advice and information on a range oftopics as diverse as human nature itself. Steve Garrill,who runs the UK based website www.ukselfhelp.info, hasundertaken the Herculean task of gathering details ofmany of these groups into one directory, which is

available both as an A4 booklet and on CD Rom. Itscontent is conveniently arranged in alphabetical orderand is well indexed, so you can quickly pinpoint theentry you’re looking for.

During liaison work, I often refer general medicalteams and other specialties to the directory. My copy isalways in great demand from community psychiatricnurses, social workers, and other doctors—so much sothat my last copy was left in tatters. The Help Directoryis an undiscovered gem when it comes to clinicalmanagement, improving the lives of both doctors andpatients. Patients often thank me for the contact pointsof support that can reach those parts that a 20 minuteconsultation cannot.

Naturally, there is room for improvement. The CDRom would benefit from a quick search facility, and asmaller edition of the paper version, similar in size to theOxford Handbook, would be invaluable for doctors onthe move—but these points are trivial when comparedwith the directory’s overall usefulness. Having experi-enced its benefits first hand I have no problems inrecommending the Help Directory. No doctor shouldleave home without it.

Order details are at www.ukselfhelp.info/order j

Rita Pal freelance medical writer and psychiatristMidlandsrita@ritapal.com

www.gprecruitment.org.ukwww.pgmd.man.ac.ukwww.jcptgp.org.ukwww.gmc-uk.orgwww.rcgp.org.ukwww.gpnotebook.co.uk

Publisher: G Text, 259 Squires GateLane, Blackpool FY4 3REprinted edition £12.50; CD £12.50(printed edition plus CD £20.00)52 pagesISBN 0 9538246 3 2Rating: ★★★★★/5

career focus reviews

gp182 30 APRIL 2005 BMJcareers