Doctors are leaving profession as staff shortages impact health, says Cork GP

A Cork GP has described the effects of staffing shortages on doctors’ mental health, saying some are leaving the profession, and that patients have to be warned not to be abusive to front-of-house staff.

According to a survey by Medical Protection, 93% of doctors in Ireland believe staff shortages present “a significant threat” to patient safety, and 38% say the impact on patients is affecting their mental health.

In the survey of 872 doctors, 41% are considering their future in medicine due to the impact of staff shortages on patient safety, and 83% cannot see staffing levels improving in the foreseeable future.

Dr Mary Favier, a GP in Blackpool and former president of the Irish College of General Practitioners, told The Echo that she had contributed to the survey herself, and that the results were indicative of what she was seeing on the ground.

Significant

“These issues are hugely significant; all members of the health services are experiencing them, and particularly in general practice, you look to recruit another part-time or full-time GP but that person doesn’t exist,” she said.

“In practices like ours in an area of high urban deprivation, recruitment is particularly difficult as though the work is very rewarding, it’s more challenging and demanding.

“There’s huge stress in terms of the time commitment needed and the effect on your own family.”

Dr Favier said: “In our practice, we’ve instituted a fixed capacity now. We acknowledge that we can’t see everyone, so there’s a certain number of appointments in a day and we prioritise children, the elderly, the frail, those with illnesses.

“If I was to leave my appointment list unmanaged, it would take six weeks to get an appointment, so we manage it whereby people ring on Monday morning and there is a certain number of appointments for the week ahead and if you’re lucky, you get one,” she said, adding that they also allot a number of urgent appointments per day.

Anger

This difficulty in getting appointments can cause anger among the public, she explained. “It’s not just doctors who get it; it also impacts the nurses and our front-of-house staff —they get a lot of abuse on the phone.

“We have had to make it part of the message we have on our answering machine, that abuse of staff will not be tolerated.

“Many doctors are now thinking, ‘can I really tolerate a lifetime in general practice? There must be an easier way to practise medicine’.”

In terms of taking leave, she explained: “It’s particularly difficult for those in smaller and rural practices.

“In ours we have five doctors and I insist people take their annual leave because you need to take a break.

“But in smaller practices when you can be left with just one doctor or no doctor, it’s difficult, and lots of these are in rural areas where recruitment struggles are even worse than ours.

“The Government have to be made aware that staff shortages are not just about how many patients can be seen — there’s doctors saying they can’t do it any more, changing jobs, and going into less pressurised environments or taking sick leave.”

Struggling

Doctors commenting anonymously in the Medical Protection survey noted that they are struggling to retire as they cannot find a replacement and don’t want to let colleagues and patients down, and are having to work while ill.

One said they “often dread coming to work due to staff shortage, can’t even take annual leave because of it, feel that life is too short to keep doing this to myself and my family”.

“Staff shortages are getting progressively worse.

“Staff cannot keep up with demand of the workload and patients are getting frustrated, taking out their frustrations on staff members,” another said, noting that this will lead to a further exodus from the profession which will make the issues worse again.