On 1.11.1990, I joined the GP Partnership of Dr. Spink and Partners.\u00a0 I had completed my GP Training three months previously with Bob Lee at Alma Rd Surgery in Southampton.\u00a0 In the intervening few months, I had done a two week single-handed holiday locum for a small husband and wife Practice in Highfield, Southampton, and then joined the SHOs (Senior House Officers) at Southampton General A&E department.<\/p>\n
Competition for GP Partnerships was probably past its peak of the 1980s, but it was still very stiff. \u00a0Scouring the BMJ adverts for Practices, preferably in south Hampshire, I read an advert for a Partnership vacancy in Stubbington, an attractive area, and near to family.\u00a0 We went to the address given, to look at the surgery, only to find it was a private house.\u00a0 Perhaps I should have smelt a rat, but I applied anyway, and was subsequently invited to an informal visit.\u00a0 Barry Collins, whose house it was we had seen, took me on a tour of the three surgery sites (Lee-on-the-Solent Health Centre and the two owned surgeries in Privett Road and Rowner Road).\u00a0 Later, I was to realise that the route taken had focused on the more affluent area of Alverstoke \u2013 home to those affectionately called \u201cthe Alverstocracy.”<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t recall any formal interview, but I do remember the “trial by sherry,” a traditional way to assess the new couple – a spouse was needed to answer the phone while the doctor was out on calls! \u00a0I also remember being invited to a Partnership meeting.\u00a0 These business meetings were held once a month, in one of the Partners\u2019 houses.\u00a0 I had a strong interest in the business side of General Practice, so was keen to show them my desire to contribute to Practice management.\u00a0 The subject of Haslar Detention Centre (as it was called before a later Home Secretary renamed it Haslar Removal Centre, just to make a point) came up.\u00a0 With Gordon Spink set to retire in the New Year, there was discussion about whether or not to continue providing GP services to Haslar.\u00a0I had studied the accounts carefully, and said that the loss of income could not be easily recouped \u2026 without realising, I had volunteered myself to take over the role of the Detention Centre\u2019s Medical Officer! \u00a0I remained the MO at Haslar until its closure in 2015, and this role was to prove to be a springboard to many opportunities in my later career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On 1.11.1990, I joined the GP Partnership of Dr. Spink and Partners.\u00a0 I had completed my GP Training three months previously with Bob Lee at Alma Rd Surgery in Southampton.\u00a0 In the intervening few months, I had done a two week single-handed holiday locum for a small husband and wife Practice in Highfield, Southampton, and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.talesfromtheboatshed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.talesfromtheboatshed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.talesfromtheboatshed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.talesfromtheboatshed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.talesfromtheboatshed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.talesfromtheboatshed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.talesfromtheboatshed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.talesfromtheboatshed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.talesfromtheboatshed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}