The ‘work–life balance’ (WLB) issues of doctors are often neglected, contributing to the problems of recruitment and retention.1 Many GPs are now working part-time and retiring early because of pressures of work.2,3 And the 2017 National GP Worklife Survey shows only 49.9% of GPs are satisfied with work, 92.3% report pressure from ‘increasing workloads’, and 46.0% of GPs plan to leave within the next 5 years.4 GPs with increased work stress and intensity report higher levels of anxiety, depression, and dissatisfaction,5 leading to poor WLB, with consequences of deteriorating health and burnout, perfunctory patient care, and increased healthcare system costs.6
The NHS has expected doctors to be responsible for their own health, WLB, and wellbeing, following the General Medical Council’s Good Medical Practice.7 But could the UK learn from the experience of ‘the Mayo Clinic program‘ in the US,6 which has improved doctors’ wellbeing with organisational support following these nine steps?
ACKNOWLEDGE AND ASSESS THE PROBLEM
In Wessex an optional WLB questionnaire was added to an online appraisal platform,8 to encourage doctors to think about their own WLB. This commenced in June 2018 and it has proved to be popular, being used in the first year by 2602 GPs (49% response).9 The quantitative results from the first 6 months (n = 1046) were used for statistical factor analysis, indicating that 54% of GPs responding have significant ‘work-overload risking burnout’. Could these results be biased by self-selecting responders who …
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