Ten Commandments for the resilient practitioner.

INTRODUCTION The tipping point that led to this article being written was the publication in the Lancet of data unequivocally demonstrating the remarkable increase in pressure in the last few years on primary care and particularly on GPs.1 There have been other times when pressure on GPs has been notable — the new GP contract of 2004 was a response to similar circumstances. But with resources for general practice falling in real terms as a proportion of the total NHS budget2 and GP recruitment difficulties as bad as they have been for many decades,3 both authors felt some guiding principles might help in these difficult times. Inspired by other ‘commandments’,4,5 these are an honest and heartfelt attempt to be supportive to colleagues. They are undoubtedly not perfect.