With the NHS celebrating its 75th birthday last week, one would expect accolades all round but the news is dominated by stories of its failings, internal strife, loss of confidence, and GPs seeking work abroad in places such as Australia and Canada because they can no longer cope with the stress of working in an under-funded system.
We all love the NHS and want it to succeed but as a result of successive governments failing to deliver on their promises, the system is now underfunded and unable to thrive.
The real casualty here is the work-weary GP. According to research by the BMA, the UK has a shortage of GPs and GP growth has been stagnating year on year since 2015, whilst at the same time, the patient population has been increasing.
In February 2020, in an attempt to halt the decline in numbers of GPs in the workforce, the Government announced a drive to recruit an additional 6,000 GPs by 2024. But the NHS has lost the equivalent of 2,165 full-time fully qualified GPs since 2015.
Rightly or wrongly, many GPs who see no real evidence of change ahead are choosing to leave the profession completely or choosing to work elsewhere where they feel valued and can enjoy a better work/life balance.
According to recent research by the BMC, an average of approximately 2.1% of doctors leave the UK medical workforce annually to go overseas, and more than 13,000 doctors (including GPs) who trained in the UK now work abroad.
And why wouldn’t UK GPs seek work in Australia?
Australia also has a shortage of GPs, but this doesn’t mean the GP’s life is blighted by the stresses facing many UK GPs. GPs working in Australia work fewer hours, generally earn more than UK GPs, and most importantly, they enjoy their work because they actually get to treat patients as they were trained to treat them.
For more information on what your working life will be like in Australia, visit our How GPs work in Australia page.
