Why are so many doctors planning to quit?

New survey shows two in five GPs intend to
leave the profession by 2022

Daily Briefing

The ninth national GP Worklife Survey, carried out in late 2017 by
the University of Manchester and the Department of Health and
Social Care, found that of the 2,195 GPs in England questioned, 39%
were likely to quit by 2022.

That compares with 19.4% in 2005, and 35.3% in 2015, The Guardian reports.

GP leaders described the findings as “incredibly worrying”, and
warned that general practice was “struggling under intense
pressure”.

“The findings are a further dent in the Government’s
target to increase the GP workforce by 5,000 full-time equivalent
GPs by 2020-21, after a 4% drop in the workforce over
the past two years,” says GPonline.

So why are so many doctors on the verge of quitting?

Workloads

A variety of factors have contributed to the rise in the number
of GPs planning to resign.

Of those set to leave the profession, 92.3% said they were
unhappy with “increasing workloads”, and that this was a driving
factor behind their decision to quit. 

Almost two-thirds of the GPs questioned said they work at least
40 hours a week, and one in five claimed to work more than 60 hours
a week.

These heavy workloads mean that two-thirds of family doctors
take no breaks during a typical clinical session lasting about four
hours, and “many felt unable to take a break all day”, says
GPonline.

One GP told the site: “There is no such thing as a break or even
lunch. Taking a break means you would be home even later, with even
less time with your kids.”

Another said: “Breaks simply add time to a day that is already
14 hours long.”

Closely related to this were the second and third-most common
reasons for quitting: feeling that there is “insufficient time to
do justice to the job” (85.3% of subjects) and that increased
demands from patients is putting too much strain on
GPs’ positions (85.8%).

Job dissatisfaction

Dissatisfaction with work was also a key factor in the rise in
GPs looking to leave.

Fewer than half (49.9%) of the GPs surveyed said they were
satisfied with their job, with many citing the difficulties of
being presented with patients with increasingly complex needs
(98.2%), having to work “very intensively” (95.5%), and having to
work “very quickly” (88.8%).

Professor Kath Checkland, who led the study, said: “Although the
declines in satisfaction seen between previous years has stopped,
low satisfaction and high pressures have been sustained.

“The all-time high figure of 39% of GPs who say they intend to
quit within five years is particularly worrying in terms of the
possible implications it might have on recruitment, retention and
patient care.”

Chris Hopson, the chief executive of NHS Providers, which
represents hospital trusts, added: “The figures reflect the
worrying gap between what the NHS is being asked to deliver and the
resources available following almost a decade of austerity. There
are not enough staff, ambulances, community and mental health
capacity or hospital beds to cope.”