NHS facing ‘mass exodus’ of GPs in England, experts warn

[Northerner]

The NHS faces a “mass exodus” of GPs, experts have warned as figures reveal nearly one in four are nearing retirement amid a growing row over staff shortages and access to family doctors.

Official data show that 23% of family doctors in England – or more than 6,000 – are 55 or over and expected to quit within the next few years. The average age at which doctors retire is now 59, and only one in 10 is under 35. The number of doctors retiring early has more than trebled since 2008.

The NHS Digital figures also show nearly four in 10 GPs (38%) are aged 50 or over, underlining a demographic “time bomb” set to hit surgeries.

Senior doctors said the figures were a huge concern, especially as burnout and “overbearing scrutiny” from politicians are prompting thousands more to say they are considering quitting.

The departure of thousands of GPs from the profession over the next year is an “increasingly realistic prospect”, said Prof Martin Marshall, the chair of the Royal College of GPs (RCGP). Some GP surgeries had already been forced to close their doors for good because of staff shortages, he said.

NHS facing ‘mass exodus’ of GPs in England, experts warn

Exclusive: 23% of GPs – or more than 6,000 – are over 55 and expected to quit in next few years

www.theguardian.com

 

[grovesy]

GP'S around here have been retiring earlier for a number of years.

 

[nonethewiser]

GP'S around here have been retiring earlier for a number of years.

Same around these parts, dont think any work to official retirement age, can see why they get peed off.

 

[Abi]

I would like to start a campaign " Bring back joy in General practice"
How to start...
Heaven knows. Stop the hostility but some patients are desperate as receiving no medical attention whatsoever.
More F2F. Less remote but recognise that the old 10 mins per patient is to some extent obsolete ( frailty, better but more complex treatments, multiple morbidities, patient expectation
Functioning health service so secondary care waits not too long
Deal with social care and " granny dumping" ( latter only by a minority who really cannot be ar**d to help elderly relatives- modern economics and demographics mean simply not possible in a lot of cases if F./T work or living other side of country) so that ambulances are not stacked outside hospital and waiting to offload patient and they can attend quickly if you have a sick patient
Recognition that we cannot solve everything, or alter the physical properties of time doing 2 or 3 things at once
I'm lucky as working in a functioning surgery but the last 18 months and the tabloids are still grating. And even though a lot of the comments in some of these are vile it is easy to see why in some circumstances patients are upset.
We need to feel pride in work not that firefighting and providing suboptimal or even risky care
Longer hours might then be manageable and people might not want to retire or emigrate

 

[Abi]

Re comment re longer hours.Some GPs might not be working every day but might be putting in 12-14 hour days. imagine 36 to 42 hours over 3 days.

 

[mikeyB]

I've worked those hours when I was a GP. In those far gone days, GPs did their own emergency on call, these duties being in a rota with the GP practice in the next town. I was single handed. I gave up that job in the early 90's, but not because of stress. And I was a good GP. No, it was because I was not being intellectually stimulated. Went to work (with a pay cut but a non contributory pension) in what was then called the War Pensions Agency, which demanded knowledge of the causation of just about every disease known to man, and whether that could have been caused by military service. Now that was intellectually challenging, testing the claim against the strictures of legislation. And it was 9 to 5, with flexitime.