KEY POINTS:
- The Health Foundation worked with the Commonwealth Fund to survey 9,526 primary care physicians across 10 high-income countries between February and September 2022. This included 1,010 GPs from the UK. We analysed the survey data to understand the experiences of GPs in the UK and how they compare to other countries.
- A majority of GPs in all countries are dealing with higher workloads than before the pandemic – and many have experienced greater stress and signs of emotional distress. But the experience of GPs in the UK should ring alarm bells for government. 71% say their job is ‘extremely’ or ‘very stressful’ – the highest of the 10 countries surveyed alongside Germany.
- Things have been getting worse for UK GPs. GPs in the UK were among the most satisfied of any country back in 2012. Now just 24% of UK GPs are ‘extremely’ or ‘very satisfied’ with practising medicine – similar to France but lower than all other countries surveyed. UK GPs are among the most likely to plan to stop seeing patients regularly in the next 1 to 3 years.