‘GPs cutting hours due to ‘immense pressures’: response to GMC report

Responding to a GMC report showing 29% of GPs have had to cut their hours in the previous 12 months, Professor Kamila Hawthorne, Chair of the Royal College of GPs, said:

“Recent polling of our members found over three-quarters of GPs (76%) say that patient safety is being compromised by their excessive workloads. General practice is in crisis, and GPs are under immense pressure - and as a result, many GPs feel as though cutting their hours is the only way to avoid burn out and keep their patients safe.

“We also need to be clear that when we talk about GPs working 'less than full time' it often still means working what would normally be considered by other people as full-time, or longer, and includes many hours of paperwork on top of clinical work.

“This is one of the reasons why almost 10,000 of our members have written to the new Health Secretary, urging him to review the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan to give it more focus on retaining highly-trained and experienced GPs in the profession – as well as training new ones.” 

Further information

RCGP press office: 0203 188 7659
press@rcgp.org.uk

Notes to editors

The Royal College of General Practitioners is a network of more than 54,000 family doctors working to improve care for patients. We work to encourage and maintain the highest standards of general medical practice and act as the voice of GPs on education, training, research and clinical standards.