TY - JOUR T1 - Not ‘just’ a GP: a call for action JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 148 LP - 149 DO - 10.3399/bjgp17X689953 VL - 67 IS - 657 AU - Val Wass, OBE AU - Simon Gregory Y1 - 2017/04/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/67/657/148.abstract N2 - ‘The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings.’1One of the most commonly heard anecdotes on the plight of general practice in medical schools is the description of the packed lecture theatre in the first week. The lecturer asks the students, ‘How many of you want to become general practitioners?’ Only three raise their hands, enabling the lecturer to comment disparagingly, ‘Well tough, half of you will “end up” as GPs.’ This is a response that sadly embeds the belief that one ‘ends up’ in general practice instead of ‘arriving’ by choice. At the same time within the NHS we face a view, entrenched from its launch, that the consultant’s career pathway is ‘a ladder off which, if unsuccessful, one falls to become a GP’.2,3 How often does one still hear the comment reflective of this hierarchical assumption that, ‘I am just a GP’? This problem was highlighted by Denis Pereira Gray more than 35 years ago,4 yet such comments are still heard far too often.This is a call for action to bridge the primary care/secondary care ‘fault line’2 and cling to the ladder to achieve equal status. The lecturer should be expounding the view to students that, ‘Unfortunately only half of you will feel you have the intellectual ability and personal attributes to become a GP.’ As a profession we must declare that current and future primary care demands some of the brightest and best students to deliver what must now be one of the most difficult and intellectually challenging careers. As the recent report from … ER -