1,000 doctors want to leave NHS over pandemic handling

A survey has revealed that more than 1,000 doctors intend to quit the NHS as a result of the government’s poor management of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Doctors’ Association UK research found that two-thirds of respondents outlined their plans to move abroad, switch to the private sector or take a career break within the next three years.

The government’s treatment of mentally-drained NHS doctors during the pandemic was cited as the key factor in the mounting disillusionment reported among health professionals, with some also citing frustration over wages as a reason.

Samantha Batt-Rawden, president of the association, said that the findings of the survey were ‘a shocking indictment of the government’s failure to value our nation’s doctors’, many of whom has been left ‘battered, bruised and burned out’ over the last six months.

Of the the 1,758 doctors who were asked if the ‘government’s treatment of frontline doctors during the pandemic [has] impacted your decision to stay or leave the NHS’, almost seven in 10 said it had made them more likely to leave the health service. In total, 1,143 said said they would be leaving the NHS.

Respondents also said the lack of personal protective equipment during the pandemic (65 per cent) had shaped their decision to leave the NHS. Just over half (54 per cent) of medics told DAUK that not being allowed to speak out publicly was another key factor, as was the impact of the crisis on their own mental health (45 per cent).