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Medicine in the armed services.

For the average doctor, joining the services is a major, unpredictable step. Here, in the 1990s, eyebrows are raised, colleagues grin, and former NHS consultants warn how impossible it will be to return to the secure fold of the NHS. But are the services so very different from civilian practice? Certainly, as a former military doctor I see the NHS becoming more like the army every day. Indeed I am often heard to say that my time in the services was the best training for civilian life available. Until qualification the training ofcivilian and service doctors is the same. But the service medical student, or "cadet," in exchange for six years of his professional life, gets paid more as a student and is secure in the knowledge that the rat race for limited civilian jobs does not apply to him. In my day the cadets were the students with the fast cars and beautiful women, mixing in social circles that I knew nothing about. Not all service doctors join as cadets. An appreciable number are now direct entrants, joining the service payroll after qualification for a multitude of reasons. Most confess to a degree of disillusionment with the NHS and are looking for something different, though are concerned about leaving government employment altogether. Others seek adventure and the outdoor life. The majority, particularly those destined to become general practitioners, join because of the generous training programmes on offer-MRCGP, MRCP, or FRCS, all within six years, and a good time to boot. It is a difficult offer to refuse.