GP Training in Switzerland

Visas, Permits, Passports and Naturalization
1
Hello all,

Can anyone tell me anything about how GP training works in Switzerland?

I know I have to get my medical degree recognised (I’m from the U.K.) and prove a proficiency at B2 level in at least one official language. But do I apply to a hospital or directly to a GP practice to do the ‘apprenticeship’?

In the U.K. you have to do part of your training in hospital Medical and Surgical jobs; I was just wondering how it works in a Switzerland...

Any info appreciated!

2
Irrespectively of the official criteria - shoot for a C1 level, at least. Will make it all easier, incl. employability.

3
Ok! C1 level sounds massively ambitious to me right now but will work on it!

4
I think you have to have C1 in medical German and B2 in everyday German.

5
Or French or Italian.

6
Ok I really need to get to work as clearly my B2 Italian isn’t going to get me very far!

7
You need to get a job in a hospital, either on a medical or surgical rotation. The consultant will interview and you will join his firm. The job will last six months, from April to October, or the reverse, then you get another placement. After 5 years of working as an assistant (houseman in England), you become a chef de clinique (registrar), and during this period you will study for your FMH (fellowship). When you have it, you can become self-employed as a GP.

Doctors here are qualified when they get their first rotation, because they do 6 years university and finish with a Master's degree.

8
Forgot to mention that the fellowship takes 5 years. Also, you wont get a job without a work permit.

9
I am Swiss (brought up in England) so a work permit isn’t an issue for me. It’s more than i’m trying to understand whether doctors who want to become GPs as opposed to hospital doctors apply to GP offices rather than hospitals. It may be I have to just write to a hospital to ask...

10
In fact just read your previous post (for some reason it didn’t send an alert about it!)- that’s perfect, everything I need to know! Thank you!

11
To work without supervision (i.e. progress beyond “assistant doctor” = UK “junior doctor” / “registrar”) you can either get the FMH Inner Medicine (takes 5 years) , or Practicing Doctor qualification (takes 3 years, your practice get reimbursed a bit less for the services you deliver).

Info (in German or French or Italian)....deepl.com is your friend for translation!

Practicing Doctor: https://www.fmh.ch/bildung-siwf/fach...cher-arzt.html

FMH: https://www.fmh.ch/bildung-siwf/fach...cher-arzt.html

You definitely start off in hospital, not in GP practice. Here‘s the Bern overview (German) stating so, and that „application is in your hands“ (i.e. you apply direct to the hospital of interest). But some of the training is in practice...but later years as far as I know.

On language....C1 is in my opinion not enough. I‘m English, passed German C1 without needing classes, and after 1.5 years of med school in CH, my German has improved further. But there are still situations where it‘s not easy to understand the details of what‘s going on, or find the right precise words (e.g. to describe pain, precise location of injury). You‘d probably be OK-ish in a hospital with C1, where a nurse might be able to help orient details, and the patient doesn‘t have too much choice of doctor....but as a GP, if patients don‘t feel you properly understand them, they will go elsewhere (unless you manage to settle in a place with no alternative GP!!)

12
Thank you so much for this information! I think essentially what you’re saying is that I will have to work as an Assistant Doctor (in a hospital) until I either pass the Practicing Doctor qualification or the FMH Inner Medicine qualification (for which I would earn a bit more)?

I’m most worried about the language aspect to be honest; I’m nowhere near C1 level in Italian (I’m hovering around B2 at the moment).. I’m half way through F1 in England so hoping I can get up to C1 by the end of 2019 but I know I’ve also got to think of the fact I’ve got to be able to practice Medicine in another language..

13
Not quite. You'd start in a hospital, but likely do some of the training (maybe from year 3) in a GP practice. THere is definitely a doctor-in-training at the practice where I did my practical last year.

Yes, for FMH you'd likely earn more (as the person employing you can get more money reimbursed from the insurance for your services),

....watch films in Italian, read as much as you can in Italian...have your fiance speak only in Italian to you. THe medical vocabulary is not the problem (penicillin, thorax, latin anatomy stuff are easily managed)....its the niceties of asking about bodily functions, understanding people's weird euphemisms, getting your head round the equivalent of physical descriptions

Think of histology.....could you describe cells etc in Italian and where the erythrocyte of interest is? or only round, square, it's up /down etc.? Sure, you won't (I hope) have to do that with a patient, but it's a good way of testing if you can manage a patient's description of where things hurt!

14

It would be far easier for doctors if patients didn't exist really

15
That‘s why there are specialities like pathology and radiology....allowed to hide in a dark room away from the scary people