A break from Brexit: scenes from general practice in Germany.

Abstract

Oliver and his daughter. Last year I organised my personal riposte to Brexit by signing up for the Hippokrates Programme — a system of international exchanges for registrars and First5s supported by the World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA).1 I chose Germany as the destination and before long I was accepted as the guest of a GP in the northern region of Ostfriesland. This wouldn’t be my first experience of German medicine — I had spent my elective in Dresden in 2007 — but on that occasion I spent 4 unhappy weeks in orthopaedics. I have a reasonable level of spoken language (my mother is from Westphalia) but this had done nothing to temper the fierce hierarchy of the hospital. Coming from a relatively collegiate graduate medical degree, this was a shock. Returning now, as a qualified GP, I hoped things would be better. Thankfully, the reality far exceeded my hopes — …