Third of NHS doctors struggling as GMC warns health services in critical state

NHS doctors are “at breaking point”, with almost a fifth cutting their hours and two in five refusing to take on extra work to avoid becoming burnt out, new research has found.

A third of medics are “struggling” and unable to cope with heavy workloads that force them to regularly work extra hours to keep up with the demands for care, the General Medical Council (GMC) said.

Its findings paint a grim picture of the working lives, morale and wellbeing of doctors in the UK.

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The GMC, which regulates the medical profession, warned that exhausted, overworked doctors could pose a threat to patients’ safety. “UK health services are in a critical state and those who work within them are at breaking point,” said Charlie Massey, the GMC’s chief executive.

Prof Dame Carrie MacEwen, its chair, also described doctors’ experiences in the annual report.

“Seeking to protect their wellbeing, doctors are taking matters into their own hands. Many are reducing their hours and declining additional work,” she said. “A concerning proportion are taking time off due to stress.”

The report was based on a survey of a representative sample of 4,288 of the UK’s 380,000 doctors undertaken last autumn. It showed that 19% of doctors had cut their hours over the previous year – the highest proportion since records began in 2019 and up one point on the year before.

Similarly, intense work pressures had driven 41% to refuse to take on extra duties – slightly down from the record 42% seen the year before.

Worryingly for an NHS already short of doctors, 47% of medics plan to reduce their contracted hours over the next year, the GMC also found. There have also been small rises in the numbers choosing to work as locums or retire and return to work on a less than full-time basis.

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One GP told the GMC: “I used to love my job. Now I absolutely hate it. I feel exhausted and I dread going to work. As soon as I can afford to, I’m out of here.”

Another doctor said: “Although I am unlikely to retire in the next year, I will retire earlier than planned due to disillusionment with my job.”

A third medic said that, although they were contracted to work six four-hour sessions a week, they “regularly work on my days off and average 10-12 hours a day, three days a week, plus maybe another four to eight hours on my ‘days off’”.

GPs appear to be the worst affected by the growing need for care and the rundown state of the NHS, which the Labour government has said is “broken” after 14 years of neglect by the Conservatives.

Family doctors are much more likely (28%) to have reduced their hours compared with the average (19%) in the medical profession – the highest across all its different branches. And 48% of GPs are struggling, again far higher than the 33% average for doctors as a whole.