Jenny,

I think you were unlucky / worked in a particularly difficult area.

When I took semi-retirement and left my practice I was overwhelmed by 
the response.  Since then though the practice has continued to grow 
and has become a training practice I still hear from patients and 
occasionally from the practice, that I'm missed.  FWIW I miss them, 
both the patients and the team, though I do not miss the conflicts of 
trying to serve the patient while under financial constraints that I 
was increasingly expected to implement and feeling that one was 
gradually becoming a medical civil servant.

Even for someone who doesn't mind / is interested in medical 
politics, education, audit etc the internal conflicts when one was 
face to face with patients are horrible, but that doesn't make our 
patients or our colleagues ungrateful, and of course there are some 
places in England that are pretty idyllic.

None of the above is anti-Australia.  I've never been but relatives 
have sung the same praises as this list, though they've also faced 
some of Australia's challenges - like fires and floods.  Eqaully I've 
known people (not GPs) inspired to emigrate by all the great 
opportunities only to return within a few years saying they missed 
England (and their extended families).

Perhaps what we need is to find our way to wherever we personally 
will be happiest in the world, but hopefully, for the sake of many 
millions of people, there will be some good GPs left in the UK.

Julian



At 12:20 29/03/2013, you wrote:

>My kids go to school here, Halidays point.
>The pool on the beach is where they have swimming and surfing lessons at
>school...
>http://www.flickr.com/photos/blackdiamondimages/4074085330/
>
>Heres the Byron Bay line up this year...
>
>http://www.bluesfest.com.au/
>
>Tea gardens is a pretty place nearby...
>
>http://www.teagardensonline.com.au/index_files/vic.htm
>
>And if you would rather try whale watching rather than swimming with the
>dolphins you can take a local boat out...
>
>http://www.amaroocruise.com.au/whale_watching.htm
>
>You are all barmy and completely mad to even consider staying in the UK for
>another second.
>We gave the best years of our lives to the elf service in the UK and for
>what?
>Who gave a flying fanny feck when we left Mansfield to go to the Isle of
>Shite?
>Not one patient rang, wrote or bothered so dont think they will miss you or
>that you are even vaguely necessary...
>So no-one even noticed when we shifted here, and the only time we were
>missed was when a neighbour complained we hadn't cancelled the milk...
>Max up your credit cards, get a fecking great metal container and ship it
>over with your possessions in and simply walk away....
>If you cant sell and owe too much on the mortgage then get some advice and
>hand the keys back to the mortgage company and say thanks..dont want it
>anymore...
>Get a one way ticket and come and visit us...we will have a barbie on the
>beach (But please please ship me a crate of Theakstons old Peculiar real
>ale over, I really do miss real ale)
>In the meantime the local wine from the hunter valley is world renown and
>very, very moorish.
>If you want to think about it then giz a buzz and email me off list for an
>honest opinion...Please consider asking the Oz equivalent of GPUK
>before accepting any job offers though as the sales talk often hides the GP
>issues that you need to know about and the GPs on the OZ list are very
>brutally honest about where is a good or bad area to work in
>:)