Doctors are at “breaking point” and many are cutting back their hours to protect their wellbeing, the medical regulator has warned. The General Medical Council (GMC) said doctors are “taking matters into their own hands” by reducing hours and declining additional work meaning even longer waits for patients. The news could come as a blow to ministers after Labour pledged to ramp up evening and weekend work to try to reduce the backlog of care in the NHS.
The GMC also found a “concerning” number of doctors are taking time off work due to stress . It warned that UK health services are “in a critical state and those who work in them are at breaking point”. The regulator said “workloads are high and professional satisfaction is low”.
A third of doctors (33 per cent) are struggling and feel unable to cope, according to the GMC survey of more than 4,000 doctors across the UK. And 23 per cent said they had been forced to take time off due to stress over the last year. Some 41 per cent polled by the GMC last year said they had refused to take on additional work – up from 23 per cent in 2021.
And 19 per cent said they had reduced their hours due to “pressure on workload and capacity” – up from 8 per cent in 2021. “For individual doctors, this is often the only responsible way they can deliver safe care, but such steps further reduce the capacity of the health service,” according to the GMC report. In 2023, 53 per cent of doctors reported being satisfied .