Doctors in Northern Ireland ‘at higher risk of burnout’ than rest of UK, says report

Dr Alan Stout said the results confirmed the experiences of frontline healthcare workers, and should act as a warning for politicians

Doctors working in Northern Ireland are at higher risk of burnout than other doctors in the UK, according to a survey.

The “workplace experiences” report by the General Medical Council (GMC), published on Thursday, found that 26% of doctors in Northern Ireland were at high risk of burnout compared to an average of 18% in the UK.

A further 54% said they found it difficult to provide patient care at least once a week, compared with a UK average of 40%.

Dr Alan Stout, chairman of the British Medical Association’s Northern Ireland Council, said the results confirmed the experiences of frontline healthcare workers, and should act as a warning for politicians.

“This report is yet another reminder that doctors working in Northern Ireland are subjected to workloads and workplace conditions that would be deemed unacceptable elsewhere in the UK,” he said.

“The crisis in the NHS in Northern Ireland is well rehearsed, but these figures from the GMC are particularly damning for this region of the UK: 26% of doctors at high risk of burnout, compared with an 18% UK average; 54% of doctors found it difficult to provide patient care at least once a week, compared with a 40% UK average; 73% reported working beyond their rostered hours at least once a week, compared with a 62% UK average.

“These figures come as no surprise to frontline medics here, and they should be cause for alarm to our policymakers.”

The GMC report also found that general practitioners were ‘the most pressurised group in the medical workforce across the UK’ and warned that without action to tackle this, efforts to move patient care into the community “may well be thwarted”.

“I hope our health minister takes note of this,” Dr Stout said.

“He cannot achieve his ambition of shifting healthcare ‘left’ into the community when he has imposed a GMS contract that does not adequately fund general practice in its current state, forcing GPs to take collective action.

“The entire future of the health service is dependent on retaining our workforce, and this means valuing what doctors do by committing to full pay restoration along with timely pay uplifts, a fully funded general practice, and addressing doctors’ working conditions.

“All this needs meaningful actions and engagement with the workforce, rather than the current default response of promises of change that fail to materialise.”

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