What's your GP up to behind closed doors?

Most people imagine their doctor in the GP surgery consultation rooms.
Leeds set to stage unique health conferenceLeeds set to stage unique health conference
Leeds set to stage unique health conference

Yet there is more to the profession than what you see us do - diagnosing illness, prescribing an array of drugs and treating our patients.

We don’t know how the public view doctors taking on other roles outside seeing patients. Most people have been in a situation where they feel they cannot get an appointment quickly enough, and the NHS is massively under resourced. We can only guess that patients might not feel too happy if they thought their GP was out teaching at the University when there is already a wait for appointments. We understand that. We need enough doctors to see patients (obviously). Despite this, we argue that it is a necessity that doctors take on roles outside the surgery.

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On ​Saturday (May 19) we are holding a unique National Conference in Leeds, to showcase the careers GPs have outside their surgeries and to inspire others doctors to develop these roles.

Successful, safe doctors need to keep up to date and demonstrate that though appraisal. This is especially important to give patients the latest evidence-based care of the best standards. So, we need GPs to be educators – mentoring fellow colleagues and teaching the GPs of the future.

Angela is ​founder of Inspired Medics whose interests outside being a GP include ​medical and ​lifestyle ​medicine. She specialises​ ​in ​skin conditions, holding​ dermatology clinics. Teaching medics on dermatology​, she has published articles and national guidance for health professionals on skin disease. Miriam is a second year student doctor and​ media ​lead for Inspired Medics. She started her journey gaining a degree in chemistry but was always keen to retrain as a doctor. Miriam is keen to peruse a career in preventative medicine to help prevent and reverse disease through ​lifestyle changes.

The healthcare system needs medico-political leaders who understand the system from the inside to guide policy making.

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Innovation is always needed in medicine, for example, creating new avenues of care in ​digital ​health ​such as tele-medicine. GPs working in these fields can ensure these systems are safe and effective for patients. At our conference we will have GPs who are leaders, educators, appraisers, innovators, entrepreneurs and more.

It is no secret that doctors have rewarding, yet demanding jobs. The reasons many doctors leave the profession early is due to the stress of the job. We will showcase medics who successfully combine medicine with another career (one of our doctor speakers is a Team GB athlete).

The event has been organised by Inspired Medics​, an organisation founded by Dr Angela Goyal​, GP of 15 years​. “We hope it will inspire doctors to pursue roles alongside their clinical commitments, to aid the development of the profession and prevent doctors from leaving medicine altogether.

Miriam, a second-year student doctor working with Inspired Medics, says: “I learnt about other roles doctors can have.

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Helping in the development of medicine, alongside my clinical duties, in the future is my goal”.

So, what is your doctor up to outside their clinic doors? Teaching, developing technology or even researching better treatments! The future of healthcare lies in the hands of those working at the front line who understand the challenges of delivering healthcare.