Poor morale among doctors could put patients at risk warns General Medical Council

The Department of Health said listening to the concerns of staff was central to plans to improve services. The GMC in their annual report noted that following the anger and frustration of the dispute between junior doctors in England and the Department of Health, levels of alienation “should cause everyone to pause and reflect”.

The report also found that 582 fewer doctors had gone on to specialty training in 2015 following their two post-graduate foundation years, although a number take a break at this point to improve their skills either in the UK or abroad, or for personal reasons. Most doctors planning to take a break (86.5%) gave work-life balance as the reason; of those, 47% cited burnout resulting from their clinical placements. The GMC said this suggested significant pressure on junior doctors, but added that problems in the workforce were “complex and multi-factorial, and some are long-standing”.

It appears that the old system – when there was a registrar, senior registrar and consultant and if in the middle of the night you got something you couldn’t deal with there was always somebody at the end of the phone who had more experience and if needs be would come in – seems to have broken down, leaving junior doctors feeling isolated and having no one to turn to.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health for England said: “The dedication and sheer hard work of our NHS doctors is absolutely crucial to delivering world-class care for patients……the report makes clear, the standard of care provided by doctors working in the UK remains among the best in the world…….the government is investing £10bn to fund the NHS’s own plan to transform services for the future – central to which is listening to the concerns of staff.”

Amanda Cavanagh, a medical injury specialist at Ashtons Legal, comments:

“It is startling that the GMC has felt the need to wade into the debate. This unprecedented intervention appears to back the common sense position which we all maintain, that a lack of funding and stretched resources are having a detrimental effect on the ability of the NHS and its hardworking staff to function properly and safely. We can only hope that the promised injection of £10bn into the NHS will have the desired effect. However, there needs to be ongoing investment into the funding of staff and training, not just a ‘sticking plaster’ if this is ever going to reduce the potential for clinical negligence claims”.