According to a recent survey of practice staff on the future of general practice, only a fifth of GPs expect their practice to still exist in 10 years.
The survey was initiated by a practice manager in Oxford and was initially sent out to local practitioners. Due to the number of responses received, a more extensive survey was circulated more widely. In total, over 2,700 responses were received and three-quarters of those were from GPs.
The final results showed only 20% of respondents were confident their practice would exist in 10 years, while a third disagreed.
97% of the respondents agreed their practice was ‘experiencing an ever increasing and unsustainable pressure of work’, while 68% said their referral rate was likely to increase in order to cope with increased demands on general practice.
Four-fifths of respondents said they believed one or more GPs in their practice was suffering from ‘burnout’.