One in five GPs in England are making ‘definite plans’ to leave the profession because they are struggling to find work, a BMA survey on GP unemployment has suggested.
The BMA said this new survey, which was open to all GPs, builds on previous findings of unemployment among locums, showing that now the ‘crisis has spread’ to other groups, particularly salaried GPs.
It also found that almost half (47%) of GPs are considering alternative career paths, with the ‘most popular’ change considered being clinical jobs outside the NHS (43%).
The survey, answered by more than 1,400 GPs, suggested that half want to work more hours in the NHS but ‘cannot find suitable opportunities’.
Meanwhile, 15% of GPs are unable to find any GP work at all, with over two-thirds (69%) reported experiencing ‘stress or anxiety due to un- or underemployment’.
In light of these findings, the union encouraged GPs to use its new ‘write to your MP’ tool to push for solutions to the GP unemployment problem.
This tool includes a calculator which allows GPs to estimate the number of additional appointments they could deliver ‘if employment barriers were removed’.
A previous survey from June last year revealed that more than 80% of locum GPs reported that they ‘cannot find work’, with over 70% blaming the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS).
The BMA’s findings echo concerns raised in Pulse’s major series on the recruitment/unemployment crisis which found that a quarter of salaried GPs and locums are looking for a permanent role at the same time as practices are facing a shortfall in GP numbers.
Pulse’s survey also revealed that almost 40% of GPs see themselves leaving UK general practice in the next five years.
Other findings from the BMA’s 2025 survey:
- 40% of GPs considered taking up general practice opportunities abroad;
- 38% considered leaving healthcare altogether;
- 60% of GPs reported a decline in pay rates for GP work over the past year.
The BMA blamed the crisis on ‘rising running costs and decades of underfunding’ in GP practices, while also highlighting that funding has ‘been diverted into non-GP roles’ via the ARRS.
It said the expansion of the ARRS to GPs, announced by the health secretary last summer, is an ‘ineffective’ short-term solution which ‘dilutes the role of the family doctor and the doctor-patient relationship’.
Sessional GP committee chair Dr Mark Steggles said their news findings ‘confirm [their] worst fears’ as the issue is now ‘spreading through the profession’ with ‘many wondering why they should bother staying in the NHS at all’.
He continued: ‘This is a really serious situation, and we hope this survey, coupled with our Write to Your MP tool, prompts the Government to act.
‘If that doesn’t happen, we face a mass exodus of talented GPs and an even bigger waiting list that will just set the health service back once again.’
The RCGP said that GPs leaving the profession will have ‘far reaching and long-term consequences for patients and the wider NHS’.
College chair Professor Kamila Hawthorne said the unemployment crisis has been caused by ‘decades of underfunding and poor workforce planning’.
She said: ‘No GP should go through medical school and their GP specialty training only to face worry that they will not have a job at the end of it – especially when we know patient need for our care and services is increasing.
‘The efforts made to address this – expanding ARRS funding to employ GPs – have been helpful in the short term, but we need long-term solutions to this growing crisis,’ Professor Hawthorne added.
The BMA’s survey was open between 24 January and 17 February 2025, with the highest number of responses coming from locum and salaried GPs (39% and 36% respectively).
The problem with BMA/RCGP is that they promised doctors a world of 30 minute appointments with no additional responsibility. Many preferred locum work instead of partnerships in busier ( less affluent) practices. The leafy suburbs ( RCGP leaders) cannot understand that those left behind employed nurse practitioners, PAs and other long term solutions as there was no alternative to maintain good enough care. It works and these are caring ,capable, reliable clinicians. Revolving locums do not work. The answer is obvious – embrace doctor led team based primary care and there will be GP jobs aplenty as more secondary care moves into primary care as it should. It will mean young doctors must commit long term but isn’t that what GPs should do? The leafy suburbs can still keep their ivory towers going.
We have always had the wrong self-serving GPs in leadership roles whether the previous CCGs, ICBs, PCN CDs , RCGP or NHS England, hence we should expect the same worst outcomes as we have always seen and continue to see. Additionally, there is a role for other allied staff working alongside GPs but not replacing GPs but again these roles have been abused & misused to their unfortunate detriment as well as to the detriment of other GP colleagues by these same leaders particularly certain PCN CDs. The problem is compounded as above, when these same undeserving overpaid leaders come from privileged positions compounded by working in the leafy suburbs where there has never, in real terms been a recruitment problem or in many cases no viability issues. Practices, GPs, leaders , locums all vary, and we continue to use locums at the same rates as always(never reduced and not replaced by allied roles) but the locums we once could never recruit as they preferred the suburbs and I have recorded as demanding £145 per hour, but now offer their services we don’t employ. I do believe Dr KB of the BMA has performed very well in attempting reforms and is doing as much as is reasonably possible considering she is surrounded by leaders who are in no way deserving of this leader description, but it will be no easy ongoing task as the majority of the rest of the many layers of NHS leadership from GP practices to NHSE and DHSC are not fit for purpose as all the evidence from every sphere of the NHS makes abundantly obvious.
Wake up people, GPs are no longer needed. Too expensive to train and it takes way too long to reach our peaks (which doesn’t always happen). Our “leaders” are going with quantity over quality I’m afraid, Putin style