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Health and Medicine
Medicine and Surgery
‘Doctors practise medicine in order to serve the interests of patients’. (General Medical Council)
Medical doctors identify and treat illnesses and injuries. Surgeons carry out operations to remove or repair parts of the body, to help the patient recover from illness or injury.
It takes a long time to become a fully qualified doctor or a surgeon.
You start by taking a 5 year degree course in medicine and surgery. After that, you do a two year foundation programme. Year one leads to full registration with the General Medical Council. Year two allows you to try a range of specialties.
You then decide whether you want to become a General Practitioner (GP) or specialise in hospital work. To become a specialist in any area of medicine (including General Practice), or to become a surgeon, you must do a good deal more studying.
To work as a doctor you should be patient, understanding and able to put people at ease. You must be able to communicate with people from all backgrounds and of all ages. You must responsible, confident in your abilities and able to remember a lot of scientific and technical information. You will often work as part of a team but you must also be happy to work, and take decisions, on your own.
The number of medical staff (including GPs) working in the NHS in Scotland has increased by 30.4% over the past 10 years. The numbers are likely to continue to increase due to the expected growth in the Scottish population. In addition, many GPs are working part time, and the Scottish Government is trying to encourage them to keep surgeries open in the evening, so the demand for GPs is likely to increase.
There is also a need for consultants: There were 167 consultant vacancies in September 2009 compared to 192 the previous year. (Source: NHS Scotland Workforce Information, 2009)
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