Entry into practice : special committee report / Medical Practitioners' Union.

Date:
[1950?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Entry into practice : special committee report / Medical Practitioners' Union. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    GENERAL MEDICAL PRACTICE—THE PAST Before the introduction of the National Health Service there were three possible procedures for the young doctor who wished to enter _ practice. (1) He could become an assistant with a view to succession to a partnership. re He could buy a share or the whole of the goodwill of an existing s, practice. (3) He could ‘put up his plate’. Each method will be considered separately. (1) Assistantship with view to partnership Doctors sometimes ran their practices with a permanent assistant— an arrangement which presumably suited both parties. This, however, was not usual. Normally the assistant wished to secure a share of the goodwill of his principal who, anxious to ensure continuity in his practice (and sometimes to raise capital), took his assistant into partner- ship. Thus both parties gained by the change. (2) Buying a practice The newcomer with sufficient private means or with guarantees could in the past usually obtain money from an insurance company with which to pay cash for his practice, from a building society for his premises and from a finance corporation to buy his motor-car on hire- purchase terms. The young doctor thus started his career by carrying a load of debt, but to counterbalance this he was at least assured of a steady income from which to meet his obligations, and the possession of a saleable capital asset on retirement. (3) Starting a new practice There were always a few doctors who preferred to enter practice on their own, choosing to put up their plates in suitable areas. This practice was frowned upon by the established practitioners, for obvious reasons. The method, however, offered some financial advantages to the new- comer, who, provided that he selected his district wisely, could soon make some sort of a livelihood with a comparatively small number of paying patients on his books.
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