BMJ Survey: why are doctors so unhappy?
4 - 17 May 2001

Unhappiness league table

Unhappiness by grade

Reasons for unhappiness

Read background to this debate

Unhappy doctors : the league table

Unhappiness ranking	Country	Numbers (percentages)
Unhappiness ranking	Country	Very unhappy	Unhappy	Neither	Happy	Very happy	Total respondents
1	United Kingdom	170(23)	320 (43)	131 (17)	103(14)	17(2)	741
2	Spain	1 (4)	17 (63)	8 (30)	1 (4)		27
=3	Belgium	1 (7)	8 (57)	4 (29)	1 (7)		14
=3	India	5 (12)	24 (57)	8 (19)	3 (7)	2 (4)	42
5	Greece	1 (8)	6 (50)	4 (33)	1 (8)		12
6	Hong Kong	2 (12)	9 (53)	2 (12)	3 (17)	1 (6)	17
7	Italy	3 (12)	12 (46)	5 (19)	5 (19)	1 (4)	26
8	Canada	6 (19)	10 (31)	7 (21)	7 (21)	2 (6)	32
9	United States	6 (14)	19 (45)	4 (10)	8 (19)	5 (11)	42
10	Malaysia	1 (10)	4 (40)	2 (20)	3 (30)		10
11	Ireland	3 (14)	8 (38)	3 (14)	6 (29)	1 (5)	21
12	Pakistan	1 (7)	4 (29)	6 (43)	3 (21)		14
13	Brazil	2 (11)	5 (28)	6 (33)	4 (22)	1 (5)	18
14	Sweden	2 (11)	6 (32)	4 (21)	7 (37)		19
15	Israel	1 (10)	2 (20)	4 (40)	3 (30)		10
16	Australia	3 (4)	21 (33)	23 (36)	13 (20)	4 (6)	64
17	Finland		7 (28)	11 (44)	7 (28)		25
18	New Zealand	3 (8)	9 (25)	11 (30)	9 (25)	4 (11)	36
19	Switzerland		3 (27)	3 (27)	3 (27)	2 (18)	11

Method: For countries with 10 or more respondents, we ascribed the following values:
Very unhappy 2; Unhappy 1; Neither happy nor unhappy 0; Happy -1;
Very Happy �2 and divided individual countries� totals by the number of respondents.

Unhappiness by grade

	Primary care doctor (general/family practice)	Secondary care doctor (senior grade)	Secondary care doctor (junior grade)	Doctor (other)	Totals
Very unhappy	64	74	85	11	234
Unhappy	133	176	220	43	572
Neither happy nor unhappy	74	82	115	37	308
Happy	75	64	70	22	231
Very happy	14	19	8	9	50

Reasons for unhappiness

	UK Doctors	Non-UK Doctors	Non-Doctors	Totals
They are overworked	484	400	75	959
They are underpaid	327	379	52	758
They are inadequately supported	327	305	48	680
Their status is falling	159	163	37	359
They are exhausted by too much change	135	88	33	256
They have declining control over their work	238	257	47	542
They are increasingly accountable	79	96	20	195
Too big a gap separates what they have been trained for and what they have to do	132	144	38	314
They are left picking up the pieces in a society that has lost ways of coping with pain, sickness, and death	273	202	44	519
Their close contact with patients has been disrupted	48	67	22	137
Patients are too demanding	131	142	17	290
Modern medicine promises more than it can deliver	168	157	31	356
Politicians are stoking patients' expectations	281	135	25	441
Media coverage of doctors is too negative	268	157	40	465
The health service is falling apart	259	136	41	436

View the results of previous bmj.com questionnaires

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Fighting Medical Melancholia: Rob Miller
bmj.com, 28 May 2001 [Full text]
Great expectations: Andrey Manfro
bmj.com, 28 May 2001 [Full text]
Too Many Doctors Doing everything: Nestor Ar�n Guti�rrez
bmj.com, 28 May 2001 [Full text]
What a horrible world: Colin Guthrie
bmj.com, 29 May 2001 [Full text]
unhappy doc: Loren
bmj.com, 29 May 2001 [Full text]
Crikey, and I thought we had it bad here !: Peter Bradley
bmj.com, 31 May 2001 [Full text]
enough is enough: Adam Kwiatkowshi
bmj.com, 1 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Society's response: Chris Pearson
bmj.com, 1 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Perhaps it's me: Philip Dawson
bmj.com, 2 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Happyness of a Doctor: Dibakar Samanta
bmj.com, 2 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Ummmm, I'm actually happy: Tim Child
bmj.com, 2 Jun 2001 [Full text]
fellowship: T B
bmj.com, 2 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Overwork: myth of the doctor shortage: David Bullimore
bmj.com, 4 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Re: enough is enough: Santiago Mart�n
bmj.com, 4 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Some reasons for Unhappiness in work?: Michael Martin-Smith
bmj.com, 4 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Re: Crikey, and I thought we had it bad here !: Minnie Mouse
bmj.com, 5 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Suicide is easy: Marcus Cope
bmj.com, 5 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Re: Overwork: myth of the doctor shortage: Chris Laing
bmj.com, 6 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Reply to Minnie Mouse re antipodes: Peter Bradley
bmj.com, 7 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Re: enough is enough: Tim Burrough
bmj.com, 7 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Job satisfaction: Stanley Cheung
bmj.com, 8 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Do give a XXXX - docs in the antipodes: Nicola Brooker
bmj.com, 9 Jun 2001 [Full text]