h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

And should it bother me? I phoned the health centre to make an appointment to see a GP, and was told that there was an appointment free tomorrow 'but it was with the registrar'.

What exactly is a registrar? What does the name literally mean? Would I be better off seeing a GP (It's nothing 'ongoing' - at least no yet)? And what is this person doing lurking in my village health centre?

Well, I've only ever come across them in hopistals, along with consultants and other obscurly named Dr types.... Although, or course, by the time they become a consultant, they go back to being called Mr, or Mrs, or whatever, rahter than Dr A register is what we have in classes, and call to see who is there... the thing your talking about, is I think higher than a GP, and also, I think higher than a Dr at a hopitstal probably, but I know not why they should be a t a gps surgery Hmm, ask him/her, why they are there, what they are, and if they are higher in rank to GP or Dr etc, I would hope you ain't too ill

Registrar is a grade of doctor (usually hospital doctor) between Senior House Officer and Consultant (although there are such things as 'Senior Registrars as well). Most of them seem to be studying for exams of one type or another, so that they can go on to be consultants! Some registrars are specialists (e.g. psychiatrists or paediatricians) and some are general medical or surgical registrars. Not sure what one is doing hanging round a GP clinic though!

And only consultant surgeons are called Mr/Ms. The rest are called Dr.

Registrars often do hang around in GP surgeries as a part of their training, particularly if they are heading in the direction of community based medicine of one sort or another.

As a patient it's very useful if you can learn some of the jargon. Last time I was in hospital for a minor operation I had a nurse yelling at me, 'Where's the essertchoe? Have you seen the essertchoe?'

Turned out she was looking for the Senior House Officer.

The chain of command (of which the registrar is one 'rank') works like this from the top down (I'll give the abbreviations in ())

Consultant (the boss, or a multitude of other names, not all nice)
Specialist Registrar (SpR)
Registrar (the Reg)
Senior House Officer (SHO)
House Officer (HO)
Medical student

Guess where Your Researcher is... yep, right at the bottom...

: But, there is only* one way for you to go!: UP!

Oooh - I forgot to give the abbreviations for the Medical student...

('You!', 'Boy/Girl!', 'Student!', 'Oi!')

And often in the case of those who are female...

('Sweetie', 'Darling', 'Glamourous Assistant')

Oh, And, of course, to make it all wonderful, to have to deal with real annoying patients, like I was

Thanks guys!

Right, I've seen the registrar and he was a very nice young man.

He said that he had done all his doctoring training, but was still clocking up enough experience to be areal GP. He has to do so much time in a health centre, and get at least two hours video of himself doing 'real' GP work (by which they mean not just sick notes) so we got videoed too. What fun....