Overworked GPs 'want to quit'

GPs have complained about the amount of paperwork they face

About a quarter of family doctors want to leave their jobs in the next five years, a national survey is set to show.

The British Medical Association (BMA) has carried out the biggest survey of recent years into family doctors' opinions on workload, morale and conditions.

The survey is expected to say two-thirds of GPs describe their morale as low, and the same number believe morale has fallen over the last five years.

Over 95% think their workload is too high.

We're having to do more and more work in less and less time, which means that patients are getting a bad deal

London GP Dr Gillian Braunold

The BMA's survey was sent out to all of the UK's 41,500 GPs and more than half of them responded.

Family doctors were asked about retirement plans, in particular, whether they have been influenced at all by the government's £10,000 offer for GPs who stay on in the profession until the age of 65.

They were also surveyed on their views on the NHS and the quality of care received by patients.

The BMA's GP committee chairman, Dr John Chisholm, told the BBC Radio 4's Today programme that family doctors were paying "an unacceptable personal price for their commitment".

He said: "Although family doctors are leading change in primary care, offering a record range of services and are completely committed to providing high-quality care to their patients, they are feeling burnt-out and exhausted and looking for early retirement or a change of career."

Dr Chisholm added that GPs were calling for "radical change" to reduce their "excessive workload", including the removal of "unnecessary bureaucratic burdens".

"We also have to think whether all the things that are currently done by GPs are best done by GPs," he continued.

We need not just more doctors but more nurses, pharmacists, therapists and support staff

The BMA's GP Committee Chairman, Dr John Chisholm

"Family doctors are very positive about using the skills of other health-care professionals to share the work," Dr Chisholm told Today.

"We need not just more doctors but more nurses, pharmacists, therapists and support staff," he added.

The survey also asked GPs for their views on their contractual arrangements.

Negotiations on a new contract are about to begin.

In May more than half of family doctors said they were so unhappy that they would consider quitting the NHS unless their contract was improved.

'Change fatigue'

Dr Gillian Braunold, who has been a GP in Kilburn, London, for the last 20 years, told the BBC that morale was low.

"The problem is that the amount of work that we're all having to do is increasing and the workforce is actually shrinking.

"We're having to do more and more work in less and less time, which means that patients are getting a bad deal."

Dr Braunold said "perpetual change" had worn many GPs out.

She added that, while 10 years ago, GPs had to be made to quit when they reached 70, she now knew no-one who wanted to stay in the job until they were 65.

And she criticised the current GP contract which she said rewarded "bean-counting" rather than quality.