I’ve started watching the British TV show Doc Marin and I’d like to know how a doctor would have gotten a village GP position like that and how he would be getting paid. The character seems not to be getting paid by the patients - so it would be a salaried, government position, yes? But why was there a “For Sale” sign in front of the surgery?
Socialized medicine is my take on it. Can’t speak to the house itself, other than perhaps a doctor in the UK has to find his own digs to practice out of.
GPs in the UK are not salaried government employees. GP surgeries are privately run businesses, even though they’re not paid by the patients. Instead, GP surgeries have a contract with the National Health Service (NHS) on the basis of which they provide services to NHS covered patients and receive payment from the NHS in return. Some surgeries also employ salaried doctors, but in this case they would be employed by whoever own and runs the surgery, not the NHs directly. Doctors can also choose not to have anything to do with the NHS at all and provide medical services outside the NHS scheme to patients who choose to pay for healthcare (presumably, services not covered by the NHS) themselves, or to patients who hold private health insurance going beyond what the NHS covers. That would, however, not be your around-the-corner village GP.
I should add, perhaps, that the NHS does run some facilities directly, especially hospitals; so there you would indeed find doctors who are employed by the NHS and receive a salary for that. Most doctors, however, are either practising independently on the basis of a contract with the NHS, or employed by a surgery that does so, or work in a partnership together with other doctors who hold a contract with the NHS.
I should, perhaps, also add what the NHS is. It’s Britain’s government-run National Health Service which covers pretty much everybody residing in the UK (when I was attending university in England, I was covered by it as well, even though I was and am not a UK citizen). It’s tax funded. There are some fees in the UK called National Insurance contributions, which are intended to cover social welfare benefits including NHS coverage, but for all practical purposes they are taxes and are levied and collected on the basis of income in a way very similar to income tax.
I live near the area its set and more usually a village might have apart time doctor who visits certain days of the week and is part of a bigger group or “practice” in a more populated area. Or if they live in the village they might get involved in emergencies etc. Doctors do get paid well i heard a figure of £250k a year as a cap from a big practice.
Thank you.
So “Doc Martin” would most likely not get a salary; he would get re-reimbursements from the NHS for patients he treated. (There was an episode where he was being boycotted and I was wondering if he would still be getting an income.)
Also, at the beginning of the series, there was some kind of citizens board that had to approve his position. Is that realistic and what would be going on with that?
Its slightly wrong to say that he would be paid directly for treatments on his patients.
He will have a particular catchment area, and his practice would be allotted a certain amount, and this will be partly based upon the make up of that population.
So if he has a large number of elderly, then he would be given more money, each disabled person would attract more - there is a pretty careful analysis of the extent of allowance for the population.
In addition there might well be targets, with an increased allowance for hitting all the immunisation targets, whether its for Flu or for measles.
This series is set quite some time ago, so a lot of things have changed, we have ‘super practices’ that undertake minor surgical procedures -these will have very senior nurses who are qualified to carry out many of them - smaller practices may contract some such work to these larger ones, a number of these very large practices are NHS directly run.
GPs are also contracted for a certain number of home visits, there are a number of other requirements such as surgery facilities, open hours. The owner of the business might contract various aspects out or employ staff to undertake parts of the workload.
A surgery is Britspeak for a medical office, right?
Interesting that the noun “a surgery” is rare–I never heard it–if not nonexistent, in American English. An “operation,” yes. I might be wrong here, though.
What era is this show set in?
The NHS is a forever changing beast.
It’s English, in English.
Considering what he has to put up with, that sounds about right. Besides, all those airbags ain’t gonna replace themselves.
He means, “Proper English”.
The doctor’s ‘office’ is called his ‘surgery’ here, even though very little surgery takes place there, and most of what there is will be done by the practice nurse.
It’s set in the modern day (cell phones figure prominently in one of the series finales), in a small village in Cornwall. The show started in 2004 and is still running.
Oh oaky, here are the current pay scales for all Doctors >>>
http://bma.org.uk/practical-support-at-work/pay-fees-allowances/pay-scales
It’s not uncommon for salaried GPs to do a little extra work in the private sector to boost income - esp. if they are at the age when school fees are hurting. It’s money for old rope, generally.
It is filmed about 30 miles from me and yes its set in the present. It does play up the quaint eccentric side of Cornwall along with some anachronistic fallacys. Its filmed in Port Issac on the north coast.
There are very few single GP practices left these days.
In reality Doc martin would be part of a Multi skilled team, providing a number of primary care facilities in a modern building in a larger center of population. There would probably be one or two Partners (who own the practice), several Junior Doctors (who may be recently qualified) as well as specialist nurses (Diabetic, Asthma etc). The surgery would also be the base for other NHS services such as District Nurses. There are directly employed by the NHS, but would work closely with GPs.
If the surgery in Portwen stayed open, there might be a nurse to deal with minor injuries and to act as triage. A doctor might attend an one or more days a week to cater for those with difficulty travelling.
The pharmacy in Portwen would be a private business, possibly part of a large chain. It would sell a lot of OTC drugs as well as dispensing prescriptions. In the absence of a doctor, many people would look to the pharmacist for advice. They cannot prescribe, but they can treat a variety of minor ailments, give advice about existing treatments, collect and deliver prescriptions (these days the scrip would be sent online from the GP Surgery) and do health checks such as BP, Glucose, and cholesterol.
Thanks. So internal evidence suggests that Doc Martin is, indeed, a fictional character.
chickens, eggs, milk and bread.
Why would you think that? This is serious documentary.