GPs with burnout already resilient and need better support, research shows

GPs who have suffered burnout do not lack resilience and need organisational support to help reduce and manage their distress, a study has found.

Research based on in-depth interviews with those who had experienced burnout presented at the Society for Academic Primary Care annual conference in Bristol last month concluded that these were ‘highly motivated, self-reflective, and resilient individuals’ who had felt stigmatised at having to be away from work.

The researcher said the brutally honest accounts from six male and nine female GPs about the depths of their distress had ‘really floored me’.

Speaking with Pulse, Dr Orla Whitehead, an academic GP at Newcastle University, said the factors that had perhaps contributed to their burnout, including their empathy, dedication and perfectionism were also the things that made them a good GP.

There are also some workplace pressures that are fairly unique to being a GP including the financial and leadership aspects of the partnership model, she added.

‘If you’re a partner you’re not just working office hours,’ she said.

‘GPs are in the midst of a burnout crisis, which means that they are dying and being admitted to psychiatric wards more than would be expected.’

She added that when GPs were emotionally exhausted and on the edge of burnout it also meant patients weren’t getting the care they deserved because the doctor became depersonalised.

‘The human side is they know they are not giving good enough care and that is a vicious cycle and it is about how we turn that around.’

Many of those she had spoken to had been through difficult times before including childhood trauma or dealing with neurodiversity. One reported their burnout had led to a heart attack.

She added it would be impossible to screen for the risk factors that might lead to burnout ‘because then you would have no GPs left’.

‘This group is far more resilient than people designing interventions give them credit for,’ Dr Whitehead said.

The burden of improvement of the health of GPs should not be on those who had recognised and asked for help when they burnt out but ‘should not be systems-based intervention to identify, reduce and manage distress in GPs’, Dr Whitehead concluded.

But services such as NHS Practitioner Health were invaluable.

‘It is had such a major impact and the need for specialist services is definitely there’, she added.

‘There is room to expand rather than shrink NHS Practitioner Health to provide genuinely holistic support.’

In April, NHS England U-turned on plans to cut funding for NHS Practitioner Health following strong criticism from the profession.

Instead it is ‘undertaking a review’ for the support offer across all NHS staff groups, to consider ‘long term sustainable options’.

Professor Dame Clare Gerada, a GP and an ambassador for NHS Practitioner Health, said they knew service had saved the lives of doctors and other health professionals because those who had used it told them so in their feedback.

‘It is a vital resource, set up after the death through suicide of a young psychiatrist who also killed her new baby.

‘The service saves lives, improves health and helps return staff to work. I hope that the current review understands how important it is.’