The latest survey by the Commonwealth Fund has found that burnout amongst GPs is now a global phenomenon.
The 2022 International Health Policy Survey of Primary Care Physicians has shown that after two decades of decline in the number of general practitioners, the impact of COVID has left doctors grappling with burnout and stress, with people’s access to basic primary care left severely compromised.
Significantly, more than half of primary care physicians in all counties said their workload has increased since the pandemic began, with 72% of Australian GPs indicating that their workload had ‘increased somewhat’ or ‘increased a lot’ compared to before the pandemic.
By comparison, 85% of primary care physicians in NZ, 91% of physicians from the UK and 93% of their German colleagues reported a similar rise in demand for their services.
Lead author Ms Munira Gunja, a senior researcher with the Commonwealth Fund’s International Program in Health Policy and Practice Innovations, said the results show that health systems across the world are facing a primary care crisis of potentially declining quality of care as well as physically and mentally overburdened physicians.
“Prior to the COVID outbreak, it was projected that health systems globally would be facing a shortage of physicians in the coming years,” Ms Gunja said.
“Our survey results show that the high rates of physician burnout, stress, and emotional distress during the pandemic may very well accelerate this problem in most of the high-income countries we surveyed…”
“A greater backlog of patients needing care, overall sicker patients, and more time spent on administrative tasks all appear to be contributors to greater physician workloads since the pandemic began.”
Conducted across 10 high-income countries, this year’s survey specifically focussed on the effects of the pandemic on physicians’ workloads, stress, emotional distress, burnout, physicians’ career plans and the quality of care that they were able to deliver.
Concerningly, the research found that “primary care physicians experiencing stress, emotional distress, or burnout were more likely to report the quality of care they provided declined during the pandemic,” with 29% of Australian participants indicating that their personal wellbeing had impacted their performance.
Sweden, which followed its own unique approach to COVID – forgoing mass lockdowns and other control measures – reported the biggest drop in the quality of patient care, with 55% of respondents negatively effected by stress, emotional distress, or burnout.
Younger physicians also reported finding their jobs more stressful than their counterparts aged 55-years and over, with at least a third in each country indicating that their role was either ‘very’ or ‘extremely stressful.’
Similarly, at least two in five younger physicians had experienced emotional distress, including anxiety, intense sadness or anger, or feelings of hopelessness, which were attributed to a range of external factors in addition to workload, such as a lack of social supports and greater uncertainty in the face of the pandemic.
Burnout was also reported by over a third of younger physicians in most countries (excluding the Netherlands and Switzerland), with 44% of young Australian practitioners indicating that they felt “physically or emotionally exhausted, had ongoing symptoms of burnout and frustration in the workplace, or were completely burned out.”
Concerningly, despite their comparatively lower rates of mental and emotional fatigue, older primary care physicians in all surveyed countries were significantly more likely than their younger peers to report they planned to stop seeing patients within the next three years.
These rates varied considerably between countries, with about one-third of older physicians in the Netherlands and Australia reporting that they will stop seeing patients, while in the UK, the proportion was two-thirds.
“Our findings show that with potentially a third or more of older physicians leaving the workforce in the near future, the majority of primary care physicians in all surveyed countries may soon be younger professionals burdened by stress and burnout,” the report concluded.
“Especially in the wake of COVID, policymakers and health system leaders need to take steps to ensure that physicians practice in healthy work environments that are conducive to delivering quality patient care.
“To start, ensuring that all primary care physicians have access to, and take advantage of, mental health services is critical.”