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. 2019 Nov 5;26(1):33–41. doi: 10.1080/13814788.2019.1681194

Table 1.

Motivation to participate; key themes and sub-themes.

Theme/sub-theme Description Illustrative quote(s)
Participation is a function of GPs relationship to community Participation is a function of how GPs perceive their relationship to the community. GP7: I’m here thirty-something years, so I actually don’t like ever refusing, if you’re the local GP. Because I know, if on a Sunday morning my car is flat, I can go up to your man and say come down and fix the car.
Obligation GPs can perceive a sense of professional responsibility to provide this type of care. GP12: I mean … I have the training, I have the knowledge. So I feel there is maybe a responsibility on me to do what I can do to help. Because of being a doctor really. Just, you know, it’s kind of your job.
GP14: I do feel a need. And I do feel, I get this call, I get a guilt. If I can’t go, I get a guilt.
GPs are embedded in community GPs identify themselves as a component of the community. GP4: I’m in a situation where I live in the community and in my time I’ve been in the vast majority of the houses in the middle of the night and that obviously has a knock-on effect. I think you feel more part of the community and you feel, you know, you have I suppose a certain position within the community.
The changing nature of general practice may be a threat to participation The nature of GP is perceived as changing; increasing professional demands, recruitment issues, changing expectation of work–life boundaries and the feminization of general practice may challenge participation. GP14: General practice has changed even in my twenty years in general practice…. The demand service is higher, the administration work around it is higher, the medications are more complex…. And also people’s lives are busier…. And there is a lot of change in the sea where there’s feminization of general practice, has been quite noticeable in the last number of years. And they have other commitments and it is very difficult to be female, have a home life, and be a GP.
    GP12: The role of general practice has changed a lot. Because when I was here first I was called to every emergency…. Now I’m not because for, you know, road traffic collisions—it’s ambulance service, fire brigade. We don’t get called. The out-of-hours service they are urgent out of hours, not emergency. So you don’t get called to the cardiac arrests. You don’t get called.