Some of you will be starting in general practice after years of training, the vast majority of it in hospital. As you sit behind your desk, alone in the consulting room between appointments, how well prepared for this new job do you feel? Are you feeling daunted and constrained, or are you feeling enthusiastic and liberated? I expect all of the above and more besides. Well, at least the Christmas holidays are getting closer, offering, I hope, some time to reflect on this newly discovered world, probably filled with unfamiliar complaints and uncertainty. Most people have an opinion about general practice and GPs. Listen not just to patients, but to the relatives of patients and everyone else, including tabloid journalists and hairdressers. GPs are the popular front of the NHS, understood and misunderstood in equal measure. Now is the time to contrast what you have gleaned from hospital teaching, hospital colleagues and all other opinion, against the reality of what is unfolding before you. I anticipate you will find it more complex than any account from consumers or observers, journalists or hairdressers and, unless you have managed to achieve unusual enlightenment, it might come as a bit of a shock. I hope eventually you will find it both challenging and rewarding. I am sure you will discover a world of possibilities and opportunity with enlightenment reflecting the balance between hospital and community training.
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