Testimonial Category: Be a GP partner

I was born in Australia and did my medical degree in Brisbane. Having left the tropics of far north Queensland, I flew to the UK almost 30 years ago to work as a junior doctor. Arriving on a cold wet January morning, I had no expectations of what the UK and my SHO job in Gloucester would be like.

I was welcomed into the Gloucester medical family from that day in 1996. After training and working in the Southwest for a few years, Gloucestershire started calling me back.

The beauty of the countryside is endless. There is so much to explore with the Forest, the canals, the River Severn, the quaint Cotswolds, the vibrant Georgian city of Cheltenham and the diverse city of Gloucester with it’s fabulous cathedral and historic docks.

As a GP, I found myself in that magical place that is the Forest of Dean, and here I am still 20 years later. Gloucestershire has lots to offer with excellent schools, sporting facilities, Performing Arts, Racing, and of course, the countryside. 

The motorway links to the rest of the country make it so accessible to other parts of the UK. It truly is a wonderful place to live and work.

As a GP in Gloucestershire, you will find GP colleagues to be welcoming and supportive. We have dedicated Practices run by strong Practice management.

Many GPs work flexibly, and a portfolio career is encouraged. GPs and Practices have great support from our NHS Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board. The ICB is extremely proactive in supporting GPs in their daily work and their educational needs. Monthly protected learning time with your Primary Care Network is actively encouraged.

The GP Practices are supported by well led and proactive Primary Care Networks, which in turn are very well supported by the ICB.

The ICB is also strongly supportive of education for non-medical members of the Primary Care Team and regularly run training programmes for staff.

Our large County Hospitals are well run and have good ties with Primary Care. Meetings between Primary and Secondary Care teams are run regularly to facilitate good working relationships and integrated care.

Overall, Gloucestershire has so much to offer a GP for a fabulous work life balance and a great place to live and raise your family.

My wife and I moved to Gloucestershire to complete our VTS training twelve years ago, and we have made it our long-term home. We love living and working in Cheltenham, where our children enjoy access to brilliant schools, and we live in a beautiful neighbourhood with lots of parks and greenery.

NHS Gloucestershire offers a very close-knit and supportive community of medical professionals, so it’s usually easy to know who to call to sort something out.

We both love to spend time outside, so the warmer climate in the Southwest suits us well. The Cotswolds, Stroud and Tewkesbury areas and the Forest of Dean offer stunning countryside to enjoy hiking, cycling and camping, whilst the Wye Valley and even the Brecon Beacons are both within easy reach. Gloucestershire is a brilliant place to raise a family.

I am very proud to be working as a GP partner in Gloucestershire.

Come to work in Gloucestershire if you want to thrive not just survive, and you want to be part of the top-performing ICS for primary care. Year on year, Gloucestershire GP surgeries have the highest rank within our peer group for people rating their overall experience of their GP practice as ‘good’.

Gloucestershire is home to regional practice nurse award winners and PCNs here have been recognised on the regional and national stage for their innovation.

In Gloucestershire, we have an advanced community development programme and social prescribing – we strive to provide a Health service, not just a Sickness service.

Our PCNs are at a high level of maturity and deliver innovative quality improvement projects working collaboratively with VSCE and other system partners.

We care about our environment and climate change and have a very active Greener Practice network of practices. I love working amongst like-minded colleagues – we motivate each other to be our best.

Being a GP in Gloucestershire is wonderful as we have patients from different backgrounds, our local training hub is really supportive and helps develop GPs in the first 5 years right the way through.

Prospective GP Partners can take full advantage of Gloucestershire’s ‘Be a GP Partner’ scheme which is something unique to the county and includes weekly funded fellowship sessions.

Partners are offered the opportunity to join facilitated peer support groups, to join with others and share knowledge and best practice.

GP Partners, whether emerging, new or experienced, come together for training sessions provided through the Primary Care Training Hub, in collaboration with the LMC, with training covering a wide range of topics. With such a supportive environment and colleagues, the culture is there to develop your partnership skills.

This is also a great place for raising a family with great schools and activities around us. There is a real choice of living environments from metropolitan urban centres to beautiful towns and rural communities in the Forest of Dean, Tewkesbury, Stroud Valleys and the Cotswolds.