More overworked family doctors are being treated for mental health issues as GP shortages leave them burned out.
The number signing up for support has rocketed 56% inside 18 months.
Some are even battling addictions brought on by rising workloads as fed-up colleagues quit the profession.
Dr Clare Gerada, founder of the NHS Practitioner Health Programme caring for GPs, warned their 11-hour days were a risk to patients.
She said: “Workers can feel exhausted after eight hours in a shop or office.
“Imagine seeing up to 40 patients a day, their lives in your hands, with all the paperwork and admin. Is it any wonder mistakes are made.”
An ex-chair of the Royal College of GPs, Dr Gerada is calling for a maximum eight-hour day.
She said the Government had to “find ways of looking after the people who look after the patients”.
Of 3,000 NHS practitioners receiving mental help from her programme, 1,855 are now GPs
Royal College of GPs chair Prof Helen Stokes-Lampard said the programme was a “lifeline to doctors who are struggling” and “made it acceptable to ask for help before we crash and burn”.
She said the Government needed to look beyond “vote winning gimmicks” and recruit more GPs.
The revelations come as the Sunday Mirror’s End The GPs Crisis campaign calls for funding for at least 5,000 trainee doctors a year to replace 1,600 places axed by the Tories.
Two weeks ago we revealed thousands of patients are being limited to just FIVE minutes with their GP.
A Department of Health spokesman said GP trainees had “increased for the fifth year in a row”.
He added: “We’re backing primary and community care with an extra £4.5 billion by 2023/24, and are working hard to recruit and retain more family doctors.”
Inches from saw suicide
A senior GP has told how he was nearly driven to suicide by his surgery workload.
Joe McGilligan came close to killing himself with a chainsaw while cutting logs. The chilling moment convinced him to quit two years ago after 25 years as a doctor.
The married dad said he was “drinking every night to relieve stress” after 14 to 15 hour days – and could not do his job properly.
“It got to the point where I was chopping logs with a chainsaw and about to put it through my leg. I felt it would be easier to end it.”
Joe wanted to make it look like an accident but realised he had his mobile on him. “I thought if I didn’t call somebody they’d think I hadn’t tried to get help.”
Joe – then at a surgery in Redhill, Surrey – said the level of stress was “unsustainable”.
He said: “We’re our own worst enemy. We try so hard to work very hard for our patients at the expense of our own health.”
The Samaritans is available 24/7 if you need to talk. You can contact them for free by calling 116 123, email jo@samaritans.org or head to the website to find your nearest branch. You matter.
