>Doctors warned today that Britain’s GP services are at “boiling point” after one took her own life.
>Dr Gail Milligan, who worked up to 70 hours a week at Camberley Health Centre in Surrey, was found dead by police in woodland on July 27 after being reported missing the day before.
>Her husband Christopher Milligan said he was in “no doubt” that the stress and long hours of the job had contributed to her death, adding: “There just aren’t enough GPs to cope and now there is one less.”
>Doctors Association UK said the “time to act is now,” with GP services at “boiling point” and the pressures on practitioners mounting.
>It said: “GPs across the country can all agree that the pressures upon the profession have reached intolerable levels.
>“The tragic death of a dedicated colleague must act as a wake-up call for our leaders to take action to support us.”
>Dr Ellen Welch, a GP and co-chairwoman of the association, said the reality for most GPs includes working 12-plus hour days, during which doctors are “juggling” clinical work with “mountains” of unseen tasks.
>She said: “How many more doctors have to burn out, retire early or even die before it clicks that the problem is fundamentally with the system and not the people within it who are trying their best.
>“My thoughts are with Dr Milligan’s family.”
>The comments come at a time when the NHS is struggling with staffing shortages and amid concern over shortfalls in government funding.
>A spokesperson for campaign group Keep Our NHS Public said: “For far too long, NHS staff have been expected to put up and shut up with chronic underfunding and understaffing, resulting in untenable working conditions.”
>GMB union national officer Rachel Harrison added: “Our NHS staff are overworked across the board. Twelve years of Tory underfunding and cuts has left services struggling.
>“And the people who face this every day are our doctors, nurses — all our NHS staff. The toil this takes on their mental and physical health is huge.
>“They deserve a decent pay rise and for staffing gaps to be filled.”
>A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “Our thoughts are with Dr Milligan’s family, friends and colleagues at this incredibly difficult time.
>“We are working to ease pressures on GPs by tackling the Covid backlogs, better utilising technology and investing in the workforce.”
They’ve been at boiling point since before covid…
Turns out anyone can develop a mental illness when subjected to serious suffering long enough. Doesn’t need to be at war as the body treats all stress as stress
I feel dark for saying it but I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner.
I really am surprised that some days more people aren’t freaking out around me but that’s the weird way it goes I guess as most people are bottling it up or distracting themselves from it.
70 hours a week you might as well never leave as you’re essentially living there.
It’s really sad…grinding themselves into dust and they can’t even break even, it’s just a continuous decline no matter the sacrifice.
How much worse can it get I dread to think
Is there a single service of any kind in the UK that is actually run well?
I think a lot of people don’t seem to realise that it’s not just patients having a bad time in primary care, GPs are under the intolerable stress of trying to do a job with no where near enough time to do it, greatly increasing burnout, mental exhaustion and the chance of making mistakes that are going to be both devestating to the patient and the GP.
Some people seem to think that doctors are just doing a shitty job, clocking off and just thinking “oh well” whilst collecting their salary. The job by its nature attracts people who care, and will find it difficult to cope with not being able to offer a decent standard of care. GPs, like so many others who work on the NHS, are also often the type who will stay in the job out of a feeling of duty rather than putting their own health first and getting the hell out, a character trait that the government take advantage of to a disgusting degree.
Absolutely tragic. The state of public services is an absolute disgrace. So much focus (for obvious reasons) on the public who aren’t getting appointments, or waiting too long for ambulances, or teacher/nurse shortages, or crimes not being investigated properly, etc. etc. But imagine being one of the few underpaid public servants who is actually having to provide these threadbare services. The stress of always having more work than you can possibly do, and doing it all for a shitty salary and zero recognition. Cannot imagine it.
GPs spend two years refusing to see patients then act outraged when they have a huge backlog of patients. Piss off.
Is anything going well in this country other than foreign money laundering and Tory theft for their friends and donors?
Utter failure as a government.
Seven years to train a new one too. We cannot just siphon off talent from around the world forever, if more is not done to train and retain British GPs then the service will collapse and A&E will become more overburdened on top of that.
9 comments
>Doctors warned today that Britain’s GP services are at “boiling point” after one took her own life.
>Dr Gail Milligan, who worked up to 70 hours a week at Camberley Health Centre in Surrey, was found dead by police in woodland on July 27 after being reported missing the day before.
>Her husband Christopher Milligan said he was in “no doubt” that the stress and long hours of the job had contributed to her death, adding: “There just aren’t enough GPs to cope and now there is one less.”
>Doctors Association UK said the “time to act is now,” with GP services at “boiling point” and the pressures on practitioners mounting.
>It said: “GPs across the country can all agree that the pressures upon the profession have reached intolerable levels.
>“The tragic death of a dedicated colleague must act as a wake-up call for our leaders to take action to support us.”
>Dr Ellen Welch, a GP and co-chairwoman of the association, said the reality for most GPs includes working 12-plus hour days, during which doctors are “juggling” clinical work with “mountains” of unseen tasks.
>She said: “How many more doctors have to burn out, retire early or even die before it clicks that the problem is fundamentally with the system and not the people within it who are trying their best.
>“My thoughts are with Dr Milligan’s family.”
>The comments come at a time when the NHS is struggling with staffing shortages and amid concern over shortfalls in government funding.
>A spokesperson for campaign group Keep Our NHS Public said: “For far too long, NHS staff have been expected to put up and shut up with chronic underfunding and understaffing, resulting in untenable working conditions.”
>GMB union national officer Rachel Harrison added: “Our NHS staff are overworked across the board. Twelve years of Tory underfunding and cuts has left services struggling.
>“And the people who face this every day are our doctors, nurses — all our NHS staff. The toil this takes on their mental and physical health is huge.
>“They deserve a decent pay rise and for staffing gaps to be filled.”
>A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “Our thoughts are with Dr Milligan’s family, friends and colleagues at this incredibly difficult time.
>“We are working to ease pressures on GPs by tackling the Covid backlogs, better utilising technology and investing in the workforce.”
They’ve been at boiling point since before covid…
Turns out anyone can develop a mental illness when subjected to serious suffering long enough. Doesn’t need to be at war as the body treats all stress as stress
I feel dark for saying it but I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner.
I really am surprised that some days more people aren’t freaking out around me but that’s the weird way it goes I guess as most people are bottling it up or distracting themselves from it.
70 hours a week you might as well never leave as you’re essentially living there.
It’s really sad…grinding themselves into dust and they can’t even break even, it’s just a continuous decline no matter the sacrifice.
How much worse can it get I dread to think
Is there a single service of any kind in the UK that is actually run well?
I think a lot of people don’t seem to realise that it’s not just patients having a bad time in primary care, GPs are under the intolerable stress of trying to do a job with no where near enough time to do it, greatly increasing burnout, mental exhaustion and the chance of making mistakes that are going to be both devestating to the patient and the GP.
Some people seem to think that doctors are just doing a shitty job, clocking off and just thinking “oh well” whilst collecting their salary. The job by its nature attracts people who care, and will find it difficult to cope with not being able to offer a decent standard of care. GPs, like so many others who work on the NHS, are also often the type who will stay in the job out of a feeling of duty rather than putting their own health first and getting the hell out, a character trait that the government take advantage of to a disgusting degree.
Absolutely tragic. The state of public services is an absolute disgrace. So much focus (for obvious reasons) on the public who aren’t getting appointments, or waiting too long for ambulances, or teacher/nurse shortages, or crimes not being investigated properly, etc. etc. But imagine being one of the few underpaid public servants who is actually having to provide these threadbare services. The stress of always having more work than you can possibly do, and doing it all for a shitty salary and zero recognition. Cannot imagine it.
GPs spend two years refusing to see patients then act outraged when they have a huge backlog of patients. Piss off.
Is anything going well in this country other than foreign money laundering and Tory theft for their friends and donors?
Utter failure as a government.
Seven years to train a new one too. We cannot just siphon off talent from around the world forever, if more is not done to train and retain British GPs then the service will collapse and A&E will become more overburdened on top of that.