"When a regulator highlights concerns that there is ‘a state of unease’ within their profession that threatens to affect the quality of patient care, we need to listen."

• This sixth annual report covers the challenges facing the profession, how the current healthcare environment is impacting on them and how the make-up of the profession is changing
• The report highlights ‘a growing pressure on doctors’ and ‘the impact which struggling healthcare services are having on doctors’ education and training’
• It encourages discussion and debate about ‘some of the practical steps we and others could take in better supporting doctors and improving patient care.’

Pressure on the frontline highlighted in GMC annual report

Growing pressures and a ‘dangerous level of alienation’ are just two of the worrying headlines from a publication focussing on the NHS’ medical workforce today.

In its annual report, The state of medical education and practice in the UK, the medical regulator, the General Medical Council, talks of complex yet ‘unmistakeable’ signals of distress within the profession. It highlights how increasing workloads and a diminishing work-life balance are taking their toll.

NHS Providers head of policy and strategy, Saffron Cordery, commented: “The report shares worrying feedback direct from the NHS frontline that our caring professions are feeling intense pressure. Doctors are cited as struggling to cope with a mounting number of issues, including the fragility of social care and its impact on their workloads, and alienation following the fraught negotiations around junior doctors’ contracts.

“When a regulator highlights concerns that there is ‘a state of unease’ within their profession that threatens to affect the quality of patient care, we need to listen. Pressure on the NHS workforce is becoming increasingly evident as the impact of year-on-year funding and staffing cuts, an ageing population and rising demand, start to bite.

“As the GMC suggests, it is now time for policy makers, employers, doctors and educators to urgently accelerate efforts to address the underlying issues affecting the quality of doctors’ working lives. As more is being asked of them in today’s challenging NHS climate, we need more positive support for the NHS workforce as a whole if it is to continue delivering the quality of service that patients deserve.”

- Ends -