Why are so many doctors planning to quit?

A record two in five GPs say they plan to quit direct patient care within the next five years, newly published figures show.

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.

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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.”