Health & Related Behaviour within General Practice in South Thames

During the 1960s, 70s and 80s general practice underwent a continuous process of professional development that significantly raised the status and morale of practitioners and made it an attractive career option. However, more recent changes may have threatened this development and evidence from several studies indicates a lowering of job satisfaction and an increase in job stress and poor mental health amongst general practitioners. The major sources of stress for general practitioners appear to include excessive work hours (particularly out of hours care), administrative burden, government inspired changes, the emotional burden of patient care, worry about complaints from patients and conflicts of career with personal life. The extent of the problem is illustrated by calls to the BMA stress help-line which received more than 6000 calls in its first two years of operation. Further evidence suggests that younger male GPs are at particular risk of job dissatisfaction, emotional exhaustion, and depersonalisation of others. Other workers in the health sector have faced similar difficulties, raising the question of whether the problems facing general practice are specific to this particular sector of healtheare, or, part of a broader malaise.