Worries have been mounting over the years regarding the burnout and attrition of general practitioners (GPs) in the face of increasingly burdensome and intricate workloads, which many have deemed unsustainable, if not outright impossible.
In a tweet last September, Dr. Laura Mount, a GP in Warrington, shed light on the incessantly hectic schedules of family doctors, a reality few other professionals in the public or private sectors experience. Mount, while expressing her passion for patient care, recounted her first hour at work, during which she saw three patients in person, scheduled another appointment for the next morning, engaged with two more patients alongside a trainee doctor, handled 16 inquiries, processed 30 prescriptions, attended to 34 emails, and reviewed five referral letters from hospitals, each containing detailed instructions – all within a mere 60 minutes. “Nine more hours to go. Also my daughter’s first day at high school,” she added.
Similarly, in May, another GP, Dr. Danielle Eaton, announced her resignation. She cited the current unsustainability of primary care as the reason for her departure, despite her love for the NHS and its principles. Eaton opted for a less stressful role with a better work-life balance.
Former UK Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt acknowledged on Thursday that despite efforts to boost the number of trainee GPs in England to record levels, the overall number of full-time GPs continued to decline, largely due to experienced GPs retiring or reducing their hours faster than new trainees entered the field.
Official data compiled by NHS Digital reveals a decrease in full-time GPs from 29,403 in September 2015 to 28,023 in August this year, despite pledges to expand the GP workforce by 5,000 by 2020.
Hunt suggested that factors beyond his control, such as GPs’ job satisfaction, frustration with increased demands, and concerns about potential errors due to rapid turnover, undermined the progress that would otherwise have been made.
Furthermore, England’s population has increased by 4% since 2015, resulting in a higher patient-to-GP ratio. The aging population and the prevalence of patients with multiple health conditions have compounded the complexity and volume of care GPs are expected to provide.
In response to this mismatch between supply and demand, the government has made two key commitments: recruiting 6,000 additional GPs and, by 2024, hiring 26,000 practice support staff. While progress toward the latter goal is promising, doubts remain about the feasibility of the former.
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