I work as a GP partner in Broughty Ferry, which is just outside of Dundee, and I’m also a Clinical Lead for the GP out-of-hours service in Tayside.
My parents moved to Dundee from Bangladesh back in the 1970s and I was born in the local hospital here. Scotland’s been an excellent place to grow up, to study, and is a fantastic place to work as a GP.
So I’ve been a GP here in this practice for 12 years, and it is fascinating to see multiple generations of the same family, and it’s great seeing children aged 12-13 who I did their baby check on when I first became a GP at this practice. Spending time with patients and their families makes our job much more fulfilling. We have a growing multidisciplinary team that work alongside us on a day-to-day basis, and this really helps us deal with complex patients, talk through case reviews and actually find what’s best for patient care.
By working as part of a cluster we’ve managed to share good practice, and take part in quality improvement activities for the benefit of patients in our community.
Since QOF has been removed from Scotland, although we’ve continued to do what we feel are the most important parts we have managed to release some capacity in both the nursing time and the GP time to deliver better care for our more complex patients, as well as focusing on other important areas of clinical care.
Two of my interests lie in GP recruitment and urgent care, and I’ve been very fortunate to be involved in innovative initiatives in both areas: I have been involved in the Career Start GP Scheme, as well as the rollout of specialist paramedics and advanced nurse practitioners in the community. I also volunteer for the RNLI as a medical officer. I am involved in parts of their training, including here at the practice, and also on the lifeboat itself which is very exciting. I do some occupational work for them, as well as medical consultations when they need it.
I love being a GP in Scotland because I have such a wide variety of roles that makes my job fulfilling, I have great contacts with patients and over the years I’ve made a lot of friends in the GP community here. I’m delighted to say that I get to do the job that I’ve been trained to do, and that I love doing.