Burnout is harming GPs’ health and patient care, doctors warn

High levels of stress are severely harming the health of GPs and their ability to provide care for their patients, doctors have told MPs.

In a parliamentary briefing on 15 July representatives from the Doctors’ Association UK and the campaigning group GP Survival said there was a crisis of “unprecedented scale” in primary care that needed urgent attention.

John Hughes, a retired GP who now chairs GP Survival, said that the pressure on practices had intensified because GP numbers had not increased in line with surging demand, and ministers’ pledges to boost GP numbers had not been delivered. Constrained funding relative to the hospital sector, negative media coverage, and high levels of bureaucracy necessitated by the NHS and regulators had also contributed to GPs feeling burnt out, he added.

“GPs are leaving at a rate of three …