(ADVISORY: First ran yesterday under embargo)

MORE DOCTORS OPT FOR GENERAL PRACTICE - SURVEY

By Lyndsay Moss, Health Correspondent, PA News

An increasing number of young doctors are choosing to become GPs because hospital careers do not give them as many opportunities to work part-time, according to a survey out today.

The British Medical Association also said there were growing concerns about patient care when new limits on the number of hours junior doctors can work are introduced in August.

The findings came from the ninth annual report of the BMA's cohort study of 1995 medical graduates.

They said it painted a picture of a generation of doctors who increasingly wanted a better work-life balance than their predecessors enjoyed.

Almost three-quarters of the 490 doctors questioned were either working part-time (25%), or said they would like to in the future (45%).

The flexibility of general practice was the main reason for the rise in the numbers choosing to become family doctors.

Almost half (46%) of the GPs surveyed were working less than full-time, compared to fewer than 10% of the hospital doctors questioned.

The proportion of the cohort already working as GPs increased from less than a quarter in 2001 to more than a third in 2003.

The proportion planning to enter general practice rose from less than a fifth (18%) at graduation, to more than a third (34%) in 2003.

Dr Jo Hilborne, deputy chairman of the BMA's Junior Doctors Committee, said the report highlighted the need for better work-life balance in the medical profession.

"Working in a hospital is often very demanding, and balancing responsibility to patients with the needs of a family can be stressful.

"Given the changing expectations of doctors, hospitals are going to have significant staffing problems if they don't extend opportunities to work flexibly."

The report also highlighted potential problems caused by the European Working Time Directive, which from August will limit the hours junior doctors can work to 58 per week.

To comply with the directive, trusts have been replacing traditional on-call rotas with shift systems which mean doctors have to work for long stretches of up to 13 hours.

Where these approaches have already been adopted, only two out of five doctors believed they had been effective.

Many said that although their hours had been reduced, the quality of training and patient care had suffered.

Simon Eccles, chairman of the BMA's junior doctors committee, said: "Reducing doctors' hours to safe levels is long overdue.

"However, many trusts have suddenly realised the deadline is coming, panicked, and arbitrarily introduced working patterns that are bad for both doctors and patients.

"Managers need to work with junior doctors to develop ways of meeting the limits that ensure neither training or quality of care suffer."

end

Tweet