Sharing workload in group practices

Editor—Branson and Armstrong's study shows that perceived inequality remains an issue for general practitioners.¹ Some years ago, when I was conducting a follow up study of my 1983 cohort, I found that depression in senior general practitioners was best predicted by perceived envious sibling relationships when young, as measured when they were students.² Almost all had siblings.

This suggested to me that perhaps one reason that doctors enter the family milieu of general practice is to recreate earlier family life, the good or the bad. Those with a poor early experience may perceive the inevitable inequalities of working life rather faster and more negatively than others.

If such a finding held good in other studies, then it may be quite difficult to “cure” the current workplace problem in any simple manner.