‘We cannot continue like this', College calls for greater support for GPs

Responding to a Pulse survey on GP stress and burnout, Professor Kamila Hawthorne, Chair of the Royal College of GPs, said:

“We are sad and deeply concerned by these results, but unfortunately not surprised as we know from our own College members about how they are struggling to cope with the immense stress of trying to do their best for their patients with limited support.

“Every month, we deliver over a million appointments and each fully qualified, full time GP is responsible for an average of 2,257 patients each, 117 more than six years ago. Our own recent polling told us that over 40% of GPs feel so stressed they can't cope at least once a week – this is bad news for GPs and bad news for patients.

“GPs and our teams are working incredibly hard to care for rising numbers of patients with more and more complex diseases, but the sad reality is that there simply aren’t enough of us to keep up with the growing need for our care, and we don’t have sufficient funding to do our jobs.

“GPs are bearing the brunt of historic underinvestment and poor workforce planning by successive governments, and this is having a serious impact on our own health and wellbeing, with many colleagues now leaving the profession because they are burnt out.

“We cannot continue like this, and the College has long called for urgent action to address workforce pressures and bring an end to the crisis facing general practice. The Government has signalled their intention to move more care from hospitals into the community, but we need support now to solve this crisis.

“With the right investment and initiatives – including recruiting new GPs and persuading the fantastic GPs we already have to stay on the frontline of patient care - we can turn things around and help solve so many of the problems that the NHS is grappling with.

“GPs go into general practice to care for patients. We deserve to be looked after and given the support we need to deliver the safe, timely and appropriate care that we are trained to, and want to, provide, without harming our own health.”

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.