2 x Newbie Question

[Guest FungManX]

does GP = FM?

 

Also.. do FM/GP's get to practice in hospitals? or are they only involved in private practices?

[Guest kellyl20]

I do know of one GP who left clinic private practice and now a salaried house staff at Royal Columbia. Not aware of any at Children's but one/two pediatricians there seemed to be always at the hospital but they also have their own private practice.

 

BTW, have you decided to apply to nursing or pharmacy as a back up plan?

[Guest leviathan]

GP was the old title for physicians who completed medical school and the one internship year. Family physicians are those who complete a 2 year residency in Family Medicine. Nowadays the two titles are used interchangeably.

 

And yes, they have family physicians employed on staff at hospitals. I'm not sure what they do though...outpatient clinics?

[Guest Kirsteen]

Hi there,

 

I have met some family physicians who have been employed at hospitals as hospitalists. Some would cover weekend shifts to take care of post-op, in-house patients, akin to that which an Internal Medicine team might do.

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

[Guest FungManX]

are FP's in the hospital paid around the same as IM docs?

 

Btw Kelly, I actually applied for both, I've decided on just taking the offer that comes my way. If neither work out at UBC, I'll pick up the offer I have at langara this coming sept and maybe if I still have the drive I'll apply to an Australian med school and come back for FP!

 

got it all planned out..

[Guest physiology]

Hello,

 

No, I don't think that FPs would make as much as an IM, just because the training to be an IM specialist takes longer.

 

Physio

[Guest pharmgurl]

I work with a bunch of family doctors at UBC Hospital, they're called "hospitalists" and typically they same types of patients as IM, perhaps older in age sometimes I find. If the situation is particularly tough, the hospitalists often consult IM.

 

Pharmgurl

[Guest canmic]

GPs can also do fellowship years in ob/gyn or emergency medicine and then work in hospitals on either the mat ward staff or emerg staff. I know of examples of each.

 

There's a 3rd standard fellowship option for GPs but I don't recall what it is at the moment.

 

'most' hospital staff are on either fee for service or a combination of admin/teaching salary plus fee for service. The billing codes that an IM doc can use pay about 3 times what the codes that a GP can use for the same types of consult. Given that fact, I'd imagine that even the IM docs on salary are paid considerably more than GPs (otherwise why would they agree to go on salary? And why would the hospital pay IM rates to a GP?)

 

There are currently no GP 'staff physicians' at BC children's but there are some 'clinical assistants' who basically function (and get paid) similarly to clinical fellows, which is about 1/2 what the lowest paid staff docs at Children's get. The primary care docs and hospitalists at Children's are all Paediatricians or specialists (most of whom are paediatric sub-specialists but some of the older docs trained before some of the paediatric sub-specialties existed).