Stress and job dissatisfaction among English GPs are at their highest levels for over a decade, with more than a third expecting to quit the profession within the next five years, a report has found.
The findings, from the University of Manchester’s eighth National GP Worklife Survey, are the latest evidence of low morale among family doctors, who are being asked to extend opening hours at the same time as there is a serious shortage of GPs.
The survey, based on more than 2,500 responses, found that reported levels of GP stress were at their highest since the first survey was conducted in 1998 and that job satisfaction was at its lowest since 2001.
The proportion of GPs expressing a high or considerable intention to quit their job in the next five years increased from 31.3% in 2012, when the last survey was conducted, to 35.3% in 2015.
Dr Richard Vautrey, the BMA (British Medical Association) GP committee deputy chair, said: “This important survey provides yet more evidence to back up the BMA’s repeated warnings that there is a real and serious GP workforce crisis emerging across the country. It is no surprise that stress levels have reached their highest level for almost 20 years, as GP services are under unprecedented workload pressure against a background of mounting bureaucracy and falling resources.
“As the survey highlights, this has damaged GP morale and caused an increasing number of GPs to choose to leave the profession in the next five years – particularly worrying at a time when general practice faces a serious shortfall in the number of doctors choosing to train as GPs.”
The top three job stressors cited by respondents were, in descending order: increasing workloads, changes to meet requirements of external bodies, and having insufficient time to do the job justice. Adverse publicity by the media, the eighth most cited job stressor, had the largest increase in average stress rating since 2012.
Intention to leave the profession had increased in both age categories – to 13% among under-50s and 61% among those aged 50 and over – since 2012. GP leaders have warned that the controversial new junior doctors’ contract, currently the subject of threatened strike action by trainee medics, will exacerbate the shortage of family doctors, by removing the pay supplement currently received by GP trainees.
Vautrey urged the government to address the pressures facing GP practices and make becoming a family an attractive choice for the next generation of doctors.
The survey was published on Thursday, as the Royal College of GPs accused the government of living in “cloud cuckoo land” over its proposals for seven-day working.
At the RCGP’s annual conference at the SECC in Glasgow, chair Maureen Baker said: “If you don’t shore up existing GP care as your top priority, not only will you not get a seven-day service, but you won’t have a five-day service either, because you will have completely decimated general practice.”
Despite the drive towards seven-day opening for GP practices, the worklife survey found that family doctors on average were working 41.4 hours a week, 0.3 less than in 2012. Additionally, fewer GPs reported that their practice offered extended hours access.
A Department of Health spokeswoman said: “GPs do a fantastic job and we know they are under pressure. That’s why we’re boosting capacity by 5,000 more doctors working in general practice over the next five years, cutting red tape and attracting new students to the profession with a national recruitment campaign with the RCGP. Evening and weekend appointments will help keep people well and out of hospital, reducing pressure on GPs in the long term.”
