Welcome to our newest blog, #nextgenerationGP. Chantal Cox-George will blog from the perspective of a medical student in general practice. Use the hashtag to join in the conversation
I want to be happy that a junior doctor has fought off fierce competition from young professionals much more experienced in business to win BBC’s ‘The Apprentice’. I want to say that it is great PR for doctors because it proves that they are well-rounded, ambitious individuals who are versatile enough to turn their hands to anything and succeed in it. I want to say that Dr Leah Totton’s victory also doubles up as a win for all young, professional women showing men that we can equal them on any stage.
Yet the cynic in me is slightly disappointed that Leah won. To be fair, I wasn’t hugely impressed by any of the candidates vying for Lord Sugar’s £250,000 investment in this year’s show. Yet at just 24 years old (only 3 years older than myself), the media have inaccurately portrayed Leah as an ‘experienced’ doctor – she is a clinical director, fresh out of medical school.
Putting the undeniable fact that Dr Totton is a junior doctor to one side, her business is medical aesthetics. Whilst I have great admiration for Karren Brady, her excitement about an all-female final becomes less of a success for feminism when one finalist markets an all-pink baking brand and the other appears to endorse somewhat superficial attitudes towards appearance held in society.
I ask you to momentarily forget all of the moans and groans supra and take this opportunity to congratulate Leah. Well done to her, it can’t be easy to endure such a long process which appears to be just as much about raking in large audiences as it is finding a business for Lord Sugar to invest in and then to emerge victorious. However, I’ve come to believe that in order to appear more credible in any venture one undertakes as a doctor, the more clinical experience you have, the better.
Chantal Cox-George is a medical student at Bristol University. Join in the conversation with the hashtag #nextgenerationGP
