Reilly et al’s article on GP scholarship1 is important and we warmly support it. They rightly state that academic general practice should be ‘integrated and accessible to grass roots GPs’. Secondary care has long had its teaching hospitals and long trumpeted the academic triad of good service for patients, teaching, and research all in the same place. GPs should seek to replicate this triad.
We report that our practice obtained the Investors in People award and has been twice rated outstanding by the Care Quality Commission. For educational development, since 1987, seven different GP managing partners have received higher university degrees. A nurse practitioner and an attached midwife obtained master’s degrees and an attached district nurse a BSc. A medical student won the Quintiles prize for women in science while at the practice. In a typical year, over 40 medical students receive teaching in the practice.
There is a designated research room for research designed and conducted within the practice, and for 10 years running the practice has employed three successive postdoctoral research fellows. There have been 22 practice-based publications in peer-reviewed medical journals, as well as four in educational and policy publications, in the last 5 years. Our systematic review2 of continuity of doctor care and mortality, in BMJ Open in 2018, was designed and conducted entirely within the practice, involved two medical students as co-authors, and has an Altmetric score of 2421, with 250 citations and over 87 000 downloads.
We offer this example as evidence that the academic triad can be built in general practice. NHS GP care, the teaching of medical and postgraduate students, and active research can all occur simultaneously in a single general practice. What is needed now is what teaching hospitals have had since 1948 — public recognition and reasonable financial support. Both the Royal College of General Practitioners and the Department of Health have responsibilities to ensure a level playing-field for general practice.
- © British Journal of General Practice 2021