GPs report “unsustainable” workload and funding pressures
BMJ 2013; 346 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.f668 (Published 31 January 2013) Cite this as: BMJ 2013;346:f668
Two thirds of GPs in southwest England believe that their current working pattern is not sustainable, according to an online survey.
The poll, conducted by local medical committees in the region, received responses from 2745 of around 6000 GPs in the area. More than half (59.2%) said that they would struggle to keep their practices viable should the government’s planned changes to the GP contract go ahead.
More than two thirds (70.6%) said that their working pattern would not be sustainable over the next three to five years. Nearly all (93.2%) reported that their working day was “longer” or “much longer” than it was three years ago. Around half (48.7%) said that their workload would become “dangerously unsustainable” if the Department of Health in England went ahead with its plans for the GP contract for 2013-14.1
The BMA has warned that the proposed changes to the general medical services (GMS) contract would increase GPs’ workload and cut practices’ funding by as much as £31 000 a year.2
Around two thirds (65.4%) of the respondents to the survey said that they had already seen their income decrease over the past three years. A quarter (27.1%) said that they would consider other options for earning a living as a result of the contract imposition, and a fifth (21.5%) said that they would consider some form of retirement.
A fifth (23.2%) said that they would have to work harder to maintain the same income under the new contract, and a quarter (24.6%) said that they would have to work as hard for a lower income.
The survey results showed that general practice was already struggling under workload and cost pressures, said Mark Sanford-Wood, chairman of the Devon Local Medical Committee. The new contract proposals would “risk the existence of general practice as we know it,” he added.
He said, “The survey mirrors growing concerns among the profession’s leaders about the effects of workload on the safe delivery of a sustainable system of general practice in the south west, especially in view of the forthcoming reduction in resources to practices.
“The personal GP system, which is valued by patients and has repeatedly been shown to offer excellent value for money, is under serious threat from the government’s plans for the future.”