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Patient care

General Practitioner

Looks after patients of every age in the community: works out what is wrong, prescribes treatment and sends people on to hospital specialists when needed.

GPs are often the first doctor people see, working from local practices and health centres and dealing with everything from coughs to long-term conditions. It suits people who like variety, enjoy talking with patients and are happy to make decisions when the picture is not yet complete.

Also called Family physician, Family practitioner, Family medicine physician or Primary care physician.

At a glance

Way in
Professional degree and licence, often in medicine
Pay in the US
$244,180 a year, the medianFor family medicine physicians, 2025
Pay in the UK
£79,000 starting to £119,000 with experienceFor a gp, the nearest National Careers Service profile
US outlook
Average, 2025-2035
Suits you if
You like variety, enjoy talking with people and can make decisions under uncertainty

Pay is a guide: it moves with the country, the employer, the sector and the years in the job. Figures from O*NET OnLine (US) and the National Careers Service (UK); see the sources below.

The work

What does a general practitioner do?

  • Take a history and examine patients in short appointments, face to face or by phone
  • Work out a likely diagnosis, prescribe medicines and agree a plan with the patient
  • Manage long-term conditions such as diabetes, asthma and high blood pressure
  • Send people to hospital specialists when tests or treatment go beyond the practice
  • Give advice on healthy living, screening and vaccination, and keep careful notes

Where they work

  • GP surgeries
  • Community health centres
  • Patients' homes
  • Out-of-hours services

Skills

The skills a general practitioner needs

  • Clinical reasoningturning symptoms and signs into a likely diagnosis
  • Communicationexplaining risks and choices in plain words
  • Prescribing knowledgedrugs, doses, interactions and side effects
  • Time managementrunning a full clinic without cutting corners
  • Teamworkworking with nurses, pharmacists and practice staff
  • Resiliencestaying steady through uncertainty and emotionally hard days

Route in

How to become a general practitioner

  1. Earn a medical degree, or take a graduate-entry medicine course if you already hold a science degree
  2. Work as a junior doctor in supervised hospital and community posts to gain broad experience
  3. Complete specialty training in general practice, with posts in hospital and in a practice
  4. Pass the licensing and specialty exams, then register or get licensed to practise independently

Degrees people take

  • Medicine

In the UK, GPs train through the foundation programme and GP specialty training and join the GMC's GP Register; in the US, family physicians complete a family medicine residency.

Practise for it

The quizzes and tools that fit

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Sources

Where the facts come from

Written for biofideX from these public sources. The pay figures are theirs, copied as published, last read 2026-10-25.

Requirements differ by country and change over time; check with the body that registers the profession where you will work. Spotted a mistake? Tell us and we'll correct it.

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