Armed Forces day | Dr Aaron Mason | Switching to general practice
Jun 22, 2023, 12:10 PM
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Dr Aaron Mason discusses with Prof Amanda Howe why he switched to general practice and the autonomy and travel opportunities that offered.
Switching to general practice
Aaron: And I remember thinking, I miss going away. I miss deploying. I miss the army side of things. The way it works, when you deploy most of the time, as you send people away overseas, most of the time, it's actually 90% of the time, it's GPs who do the medical cover for it. And I was like, well, I miss that. I quite like that. I was feeling a bit of a crisis. I'm like, well, explore going back, switching to general practice. And then I kind of, just sort of like a right fit at that time. So I did, I switched general practice, started my GP training in the August of 2019. And because I've had done, I'd completed core medicine training, I cut six months off. And I did two and a half years of GP training. So I've had a very long way to get to a CCT.
Amanda: But that switch, Aaron, just to clarify, I mean, you called it an identity crisis, but it was part because you wanted to go on with the military service adn teh people you saw mostly being posted abroad in practice were GPs so you thought...
Aaron: Yeah, so I was still a military trainee doing core medicine training and I would have gone on to be an army trainee in higher specialty training. But I very much was getting itchy feet with wanting to go overseas and just do stuff and have a bit more autonomy have the ability to decide my diary.
Please note that the views expressed in these recordings are those of the interviewees, within their historical context, and may not represent RCGP views or policy.
If you want to find out more about the RCGP oral history collection you can visit the Museum heritage webpage
Aaron: And I remember thinking, I miss going away. I miss deploying. I miss the army side of things. The way it works, when you deploy most of the time, as you send people away overseas, most of the time, it's actually 90% of the time, it's GPs who do the medical cover for it. And I was like, well, I miss that. I quite like that. I was feeling a bit of a crisis. I'm like, well, explore going back, switching to general practice. And then I kind of, just sort of like a right fit at that time. So I did, I switched general practice, started my GP training in the August of 2019. And because I've had done, I'd completed core medicine training, I cut six months off. And I did two and a half years of GP training. So I've had a very long way to get to a CCT.
Amanda: But that switch, Aaron, just to clarify, I mean, you called it an identity crisis, but it was part because you wanted to go on with the military service adn teh people you saw mostly being posted abroad in practice were GPs so you thought...
Aaron: Yeah, so I was still a military trainee doing core medicine training and I would have gone on to be an army trainee in higher specialty training. But I very much was getting itchy feet with wanting to go overseas and just do stuff and have a bit more autonomy have the ability to decide my diary.
Please note that the views expressed in these recordings are those of the interviewees, within their historical context, and may not represent RCGP views or policy.
If you want to find out more about the RCGP oral history collection you can visit the Museum heritage webpage