Promoting Primary Medical Care (PMC) through the Southampton GP Society, working with University PMC team and Wessex Faculty RCGP

Southampton GP Society has had a great year, going from strength to strength in promoting GP careers. The year started with an event on “Life as a GP“ exploring the career pathway, as well as ethical and clinical scenarios to consider as a GP, delivered by the University PMC team. This was very successful as the virtual platform has allowed medical students from across the country to be able to attend. They have also held events on lifestyle medicine, primary care research and GP as a FY2 rotation. All great insights for students who may be considering becoming a GP.

Working with the Wessex Faculty RCGP, a presentation competition for students with an interest in GP was hosted. There were two excellent presentations, the first from Zain Akhtar, a fourth-year student on the management of carpal tunnel syndrome in primary care. The winning presentation was by Augustine Fosu, also a fourth-year student presenting research they had completed on patients’ experiences of recovery from fibromyalgia. The judging panel were highly impressed on the quality and insightfulness of both presentations and went away having learnt things too.

Wessex Faculty RCGP have kindly sponsored prizes and for the last 4 years, there are year 3 and Final year essays for all students to be able to participate in. The winners have their work published in the autumn PMC newsletter that goes out to all GP teachers. This year’s Final year results have just been announced as Joshua Adeyoju and a close runner up Sumayya Manji – a hearty congratulations to both for excellent reflections on the title essays of "If you had to give feedback to General Practice as a speciality what would that feedback be?" 

We endeavour to host more events this year for all students to benefit from. If you are interested in joining the GP society or attending any future events, please email Southampton.gpsoc@gmail.com

Ellen Bodger - President of Southampton GPSoc

Dr Karen O’Reilly – Wessex Faculty RCGP chair

Dr Pritti Aggarwal – Deputy Director Primary Medical Care