United Kingdom
Population, (2017): 66.02 M
Income per Capita, (2018): 42514.49 US
Percentage of GDP on healthcare, (2015): 9.88%
training
Year Family Medicine was Established: 1963 (Herbert, 2004)
Length of Medical School: 5 years (Hull York Medical School, n.d.)
Length of Training Program: 3 years (Buchman, 2012)
Type of Training: Residency (Buchman, 2012)
Number of Institutions That Offer Family Medicine Training: 15 deaneries each with roughly 20-40 programs (personal interview, 2018)
Number of Trainees: 3802 spots each year (2016-CT1/ST1 Competition Ratios)
practice
Number of Family Physicians: 76.4 general practitioners per 100,000 (Physicians, by Speciality, 2016)
Number of Physicians: 278.3 physicians per 100,000 (Physicians, by Speciality, 2016).
DALY: 12,871 per 100,000 individuals (Due to all Causes).
Life Expectancy:
Females 2017: 83.0 years
Males 2017: 79.4 years
Mortality rate 2017:
2017 Males: 85 per 1,000 male adults.
2017 Females: 55 per 1,000 female adults.
Infant Immunization-HepB3: % of 1-year-old children received: N/A
College of Family Physicians (Y or N):
Yes: Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP).
Healthcare System
Since the healthcare system in the UK is publicly funded, the public sector is used greatly, however, there is a private system in place generally for secondary care. The general practitioners in the UK are well recognized. The Royal College of General Practitioners, RCGP, was created in 1952 and it was incorporated into the royal charter in 1972. There are roughly 25000 doctors that are registered with insurance companies to do private work and the private sector only gets about 5-7% of funding (Gulland, 2017 & personal interview, 2018).
Everyone gets access to care but some barriers are not enough general practitioners and hardship of getting an appointment. People, in general, complain about their experiences in walk-in centers and also about their hardship in booking an appointment with a doctor. Most people get vaccinated and there are school programs for this. Community nurses give the vaccines to infants. Most medications are easily accessible, and bottlenecks are created due to gatekeeping personal interview, 2018). The doctors have good access to quality equipment, however, generally there isn't anybody to do bloodwork at a general practitioner’s practice because they save money from not having a specific nurse for that since there is no funding for that from the government (personal interview, 2018).
training
Medical training in the UK is comprised of 5 years (Hull York Medical School, n.d.) of educational training, followed by 3 years of residency (Buchman, 2012). There are 15 deaneries each with roughly 20-40 programs in the family medicine specialty (personal interview, 2018). General Practitioners in the United Kingdom make on average 64,000 Euros. Post-graduate training in this country is not organized by university, there are also about 3000 trainees in England.
practice
Some other primary care providers include medical practice nurses, managerial staff, community nurses, midwives, and therapists (Medical Practitioners Workforce, 2015). The first point of contact for medical concerns is the general practitioner and there is also something called NHS11, which is a phone service for primary care (personal interview, 2018). The role of a general practitioner is to see patients and deal with each of their growing needs. These needs are mostly chronic conditions in the elderly population, but care is dealt from cradle to grave. Each team-based practice generally looks after 7500 patients with only 5-7 general practitioners (personal interview, 2018). The general practitioners in the UK are considered to be gatekeepers. The UK uses a community based primary care model (personal interview, 2018). Practice is usually team-based practice with 7.5k patients and roughly 5-7 full and part time GPs.
References
Buchman, S. 2012. “It’s about Time: 3-Year FM Residency Training.” Canadian Family Physician Medecin de Famille Canadien 58 (9): 1045. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22972737.
“Curriculum | Hull York Medical School.” n.d. Accessed November 25, 2018. https://www.hyms.ac.uk/medicine/curriculum/curriculum.
“2016-CT1/ST1 Competition Ratios.” n.d. Accessed December 1, 2018. https://specialtytraining.hee.nhs.uk/Portals/1/Competition Ratios 2016 ST1_1.pdf.
“File:Physicians, by Speciality, 2016 HLTH18.Png - Statistics Explained.” n.d. Accessed December 1, 2018. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=File:Physicians,_by_speciality,_2016_HLTH18.png.
Gulland, Anne. 2017. “Will Private Practice Remain an Attractive Career Option for Doctors?” BMJ 356 (March): j1258. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.j1258.
Herbert, C.P. 2004. “Future of Research in Family Medicine: Where to from Here?” Annals of Family Medicine 2 Suppl 2 (Suppl 2): S60-4. https://doi.org/10.1370/afm.151.
Informant #4, interviewed by Althaf Azward, November 21, 2018
“Medical Practitioners Workforce 2015, How Many Medical Practitioners Are There? - Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.” n.d. Accessed December 2, 2018. https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/workforce/medical-practitioners-workforce-2015/contents/how-many-medical-practitioners-are-there.