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Profession stands to lose ‘one in eight’ GP trainees

Profession stands to lose ‘one in eight’ GP trainees

One in eight GP trainees will choose not to become GPs in future, a ‘staggering’ BMA survey has found.

Of 625 GP trainees surveyed, 13% said they do not expect to work as a GP in future, which, if extrapolated, ‘represents a loss of 433 potential GPs in England alone, before they even start working’.

BMA GP trainees committee chair Dr Euan Strachan-Orr said results from the survey, which asked GP trainees about their experiences of training as well as their plans for the future, were unsurprising but still ‘staggering’.

The survey also found:

  • 36% of GP trainees reported bullying in GP practice settings, but most commonly from patients
  • 29% experienced sexism in GP posts
  • 20% experienced racism in GP posts

Dr Euan Strachan-Orr said the statistics were ‘truly disgraceful and unacceptable’, adding that a ‘radical review of training environments is required’.

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Of the GP trainees who responded to the survey:

  • 75% have felt burnt out, stressed, depressed or anxious
  • 42% cannot take breaks at work
  • 59% start early and 61% leave late due to the workload

Dr Strachan-Orr asked: ‘How can we look after our patients if we cannot look after ourselves day to day in the workplace?’

And in terms of future career plans:

  • 55% plan to become a salaried GP at some point
  • 27% plan to become a locum at some point
  • 23% plan to become a GP partner
  • Only 6% said they would work full-time for their whole career

Pulse revealed last month that up to 1,000 overseas GPs could be forced to leave the UK as practices cannot sponsor them.

Last month, former health secretary Jeremy Hunt told GPs at Pulse Live he holds himself ‘completely responsible’ for the failure to fulfil his promise of recruiting 5,000 extra GPs.

Meanwhile, LMC leaders have voted in favour of a motion demanding that the BMA renegotiate GMS contracts across the UK ‘with workload limits’.


          

READERS' COMMENTS [5]

Please note, only GPs are permitted to add comments to articles

Dr N 12 May, 2022 4:24 pm

I’m beginning to suspect that there is a societal issue behind hard work, risk taking and impossible expectation professions. 50% of vets now leave the job after 4 years of qualifying.

Turn out The Lights 13 May, 2022 10:17 am

No a surprise,I surprised its not greater.I I trained now I would come out the other side and promptly emigrate.The UK is a sh&&hole for GPs now.

Katharine Morrison 13 May, 2022 11:07 am

It seems a terrible waste that vets, teachers and doctors all leave their professions at a disproportionate rate after all that effort to get to university and then be saddled with all that debt. Working as public servants needs to get better overall. Disrespect and abuse from the public, over regulation, long hours, and a lot of background paperwork seem to be common factors.

David Church 13 May, 2022 12:29 pm

@ Katharine : SOME public servants do NOT need better treatment, such as MPs and PMs. Let’s stick to Doctors, Nurses, Vets, Teachers, public transport drivers, and so forth, and leave out Whitehall with their excessive salaries and disrespect for the law. They need the opposite!

Patrufini Duffy 13 May, 2022 4:32 pm

The problem you have, is in Government there are some sour narcissistic characters that are jealous of you – the same boys and girls in your school class; you know the ones. Even some from your medical school. Give them whatever name you want – they have no interest in making your life better. They now have the upper hand – short sighted and naively they don’t know what headache is actually coming for them.