Patients at risk due to low doctor morale

Health care leaders have raised concerns over the ‘state of unease’ that currently exists within the medical profession as services throughout the UK come under increased pressure.

The General Medical Council’s (GMC) annual report on ‘The state of medical education and practice’ in the UK highlights that a growing pressure on doctors and the current levels of alienation felt by doctors in training is creating ‘a state of unease within the medical profession across the UK that risks affecting patients as well as doctors’.

The report found that 582 fewer doctors had gone on to specialty training in 2015 following their two post-graduate foundation years. Additionally, 86.5 per cent of doctors planning to take a break highlighted a work-life balance as the reason, and of those, 47 per cent cited burnout resulting from their clinical placements.

Criticising healthcare funding, the GMC claimed that years of constraint and social care pressures were leaving services struggling to cope with rising demand.

The report says: “There is a state of unease within the medical profession across the UK that risks affecting patients as well as doctors. The reasons for this are complex and multifactorial, and some are longstanding. Yet the signals of distress are unmistakeable.

“Everyone wants a health service that is efficient, effective and compassionate. We all want staff to practise in an environment that helps them provide an excellent standard of care and where they are able to raise concerns and are valued for their skills.”

The GMC says it also wants to play more of a role supporting those engaged in workforce planning – to make sure doctors have the right knowledge, skills and standard of behaviour to serve patient needs in the years ahead.