Sunday, August 16, 2015

A GP job with a view (and a pub, shop, excellent house for rent)

Right, if you're a GP, or know someone who is, there is a part-time, salaried associate doctor job going in Hillswick, working with my wife and her excellent practice team, in one of the world's most scenic areas. Namely, Northmavine in Shetland. Which, in case you're not sure, is an island group beyond Orkney, on the way to the Faroe islands or, if you turn right, Norway. Technically and governmentally, Shetland is part of Scotland, at least for the moment. Northmavine is the northernmost part of the main Shetland island. Which, for some reason, is called 'Mainland'.

Now, here's Hillswick...the surgery house - available for the associate to rent - is nearest on the right. Immediately beyond it is the Hillswick Health Centre. Short commute. The white wooden building on the left is the St Magnus Bay Hotel, restaurant and bar. The community shop is at the bottom of the road next to the sea.

I have just finished cutting the grass around the four-bedroom house which is available for rental, and is next door to (a) the health centre and (b) the pub - part of an excellent establishment which does phenomenal chips as well as having West Beers on draught. Oh yes. For when you're not on call. Also, there's a great carvery every Sunday. The local shop is over the crossroads and has fresh Voe bannocks every Tuesday. Worth moving for those alone. 

This picture (note cut grass) shows the view from the living room window. You can't see the idyllic golden sand of the West Ayre, the beach at the end of the field. But it's there, a good seven-iron away. That field used to be a golf course.
View towards Eshaness from the surgery house. Quite nice.

So, this job. You have to be a real doctor, obviously, properly trained, qualified and everything. Only 17-26 weeks a year, and between £40K and £60K, depending on the number of weeks. Which means you can spend the rest of the time birdwatching, going for long walks, sailing, fishing (Shetland has possibly the best undeveloped trout loch fishing in Europe, and the best sea anging) taking photographs, lazing about in the endless balmy sunshine, or going on long holidays to the Caribbean. Or you can do those ludicrously lucrative medical locum things.

Full details of the job on the Hillswick Health Centre website here.

And this is a wee video of my wife's daily walk to work. When she isn't driving.


 She lives in a completely different house (from the one in the pictures, not from the one I inhabit). You'll have the one next to the surgery all to yourself. Unless the sheep break through the fence again. By the way, the weather, as portrayed in the photographs and the video, is always like this, winter and summer.

Or maybe it rains occasionally. And gets a bit windy and dark. And cold. But there's central heating and everything.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am a pediatrician, not a GP. Otherwise I would be seriously looking into this!

DebH said...

Hello Tom, I forwarded this to relatives in Perth WA. & I quote from their reply "I have a GP friend here and will pass the link to her for circulation within her professional network but I wouldn’t hold your breath – the weather up there might be a bit of a downer for people used to WA, and how receptive would the locals be to a ‘new’ face in the community?
I will keep trying on your behalf .........