<<General Practice is a business and should be run and funded as such.>>
Unfortunately it has been a long time since any government recognised this
simple fact and I don't believe you can run it as a proper business unless
you are lucky to live somewhere where all your patients are nice healthy
middle-class folks.   Those of us out in the boonies just haven't a hope.
<<Starting at 50pc and reaching 100pc after 3 years seems to me to be
generous to the incoming Partner. >> Does it not depend on what you are
getting? I doubt if I could live with myself if I offered such a deal to
anyone I considered good enough to ask to join me in the first place.   Not
to mention the crucial factors of commitment,  responsibility and sheer
willingness to work-----I don' think I could have brought myself to work as
hard as my partner for half of what he was earning.   He at least had the
wit to offer me a start on 80%. 

<<I started my practice from scratch just over two years ago>>   But surely
you are in a minority? My partner joined an existing practice and his
senior partner had taken over the lists of two single-handed GPs to form
what is now our practice.   I doubt if there are that many GPs out there
looking for partners after building up from scratch in the last five years
or so.
<<  What I suspect most of you reading this post will not
have appreciated is the amount of time effort and sacrifice it takes to
start up a Practice and turn it into a thriving and secure financial
concern. >>  I would not dare to speak for anyone else---and I may be a bit
of an exception because I have worked in other countries-----but I would
see starting up a practice as something needing so much time and effort
that I would not consider at my ripe old age of 43. Maybe if I were 15
years younger?   
<< What price to you put
on that when you ask a Dr. to join you as a Partner.? >>   I certainly
understand the amount of work involved but why exactly did you do
it---start from scratch I mean?  I don't accept that you could not get a
job any other way so I don't agree that it automatically gives you the
right to offer an incoming partner a half-share.  You do of course have a
perfect right to offer any share you choose but I wonder just how many good
doctors will accept a half-share these days? I wouldn't. 

<<  All I ask is that newly joining Partners
recognize what was involved in creating the business that you are about
to join and stop thinking that your practice is trying to take you for a
ride.>>
I am sure that most doctors looking for a partnership these days have some
idea what was involved----they certainly seem to have their heads screwed
on when it comes to making career choices-------but I have seen so many GPs
who are quite happy to take advantage of junior partners that I advise
young docs to assume they will be screwed.   
Declan


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