The poll, by the British Medical Association News Review magazine, also found that more than four in 10 doctors would not advise school-leavers to choose it as a profession.

Halifax consultant anaesthetist Dr Peter Bamber told BMA News Review: "The medical profession is now a poor career choice for an intelligent, aspiring young person."

Berkshire GP Dr Jennifer Langdon said: "I think the profession's future is bleak and if I were 10 years older I would retire now."

Action plan

BMA leaders, alarmed at the growing morale problem in the medical profession, have drawn up a six-point action plan that they claim would make medicine attractive again, and stop doctors leaving the NHS.

• Improved working conditions including shorter hours and better accommodation for doctors on call;
• Flexible working patterns family-friendly shifts, in-hospital creche facilities;
• Better pay;
• More hospital doctors to relieve pressure on existing staff;
• More student exposure to general practice so that new recruits can learn about the benefits of a career in primary care;
• Moves to help GPs who have taken a career break get back into full-time work.

Launching the campaign, BMA Council chairman Dr Ian Bogle said: "The bureaucratic demands and intensity of the working day are putting enormous strain on doctors' lives.

"The government can either choose to improve the working lives of doctors or accept that morale will fall even lower and we will reach a stage where there are patients who will be unable to get comprehensive treatment."

The government has already warned the doctors and dentists review body that it cannot afford pay increases significantly above the inflation target of 2.5%.

A Department of Health spokeswoman said: "The government has taken a number of measures to improve recruitment and retention of GPs."

These include:

• An increase in the number of medical training places by 1,000 a year over the next five years;
• The introduction of pilot projects and salaried schemes designed to offer doctors different ways of working;
• The creation of primary care groups that give doctors "more power and influence than ever before."