Huge rise in burned-out new medics signed off with stress

SOARING numbers of j unior doctors are being signed off with stress in Scotland’s crisis-hit NHS.

Cases of burn-out have almost doubled in two years, after warnings young medics are working 75-hour weeks.

It is feared the next generation of GPs and hospital doctors will increasingly choose to move abroad, as they battle anxiety and depression caused by the pressures of a job they have only just qualified to do.

Last year junior doctors took 2,821 sick days off due to stress, up from 1,278 days in 2012. At least 175 of them were signed off last year – up from 99 in 2012, prompting calls for the Scottish Government to step in to help.

Scottish Liberal Democrat health spokes-

‘A huge worry that people are exhausted’

man Jim Hume said: ‘It is appalling that doctors at the beginning of their careers are suffering from mental health problems caused by their job. It is a stark demonstration of the extreme pressure which Scotland’s health service is under.

‘I hope SNP ministers will undertake a full investigation into the many causes of such high levels of mental ill health. But ultimately, the simplest solution would be to better support Scotland’s NHS to cope with increasing demand on services.’

A young doctor warned a British Medical Association conference in June that junior medics are dangerously overworked.

Adam Collins, 24, from Edinburgh, said they are forced to cover long overnight shifts with no breaks, adding: ‘There is a huge worry that people are exhausted… they are taking weeks off from stress because of the intensity of the workload.’

Dr Collins said he had worked 75hour weeks, with just one day off, because the European Working Time Directive limit of 45 hours a week is averaged over six months.

There are fears junior doctors are being used to fill gaps left by staffing shortages, following previous warnings that they have been abandoned to run hospital wards alone.

In Scotland there are more than 2,400 vacancies for nurses and senior and trainee doctors, leaving hospitals severely short- staffed. David Reid, chairman of BMA Scotland’s junior doctors committee said: ‘The pressures on the NHS in Scotland are undoubtedly increasing the strain felt by doctors. It’s disconcerting that an increasing number of junior doctors appear to be struggling to cope with the demands being placed on them.

‘Stress and exhaustion have a serious impact on the ability of doctors to provide the best care possible to their patients.’

The figures on stress, which cover doctors in hospitals and GP surgeries, come as a third of GPs say they wish they had chosen a different job. A survey by the Liberal Democrats, to which almost 400 GPs replied, found 33 per cent would never become a family doctor given the choice again. Experts say this view has been passed down to junior doctors, who see becoming a GP as overwhelming, because of the broad base of medical knowledge, hours and bureaucracy.

Two in five GPs who qualify in Scotland are believed to be leaving for countries including Australia and New Zealand.

Jean Turner, ex-director of Scotland Patients Association, said: ‘Our health professionals don’t have the time to properly treat or diagnose patients, it is like they are on a treadmill and have to do everything quickly.

‘They are working very long hours and it is stressful, especially for younger people. But because more senior doctors do not have juniors to help them out, they too become stressed.’

Health Secretary Shona Robison said: ‘Under this government there are record numbers of doctors employed in NHS Scotland and since 2006 we have seen a 23.6 per cent increase in the numbers of medical staff from 9,600 to 11,868.

‘We recognised that more had to be done to improve the working lives of junior doctors and, rather than simply comply with legislation, we have gone even further.

‘In February 2015 we stopped junior doctors working seven full shift nights in a row and by February 2016 no junior doctor will work for any more than seven days in a row in any shift pattern.

She added: ‘Furthermore, all junior doctor rotas in Scotland comply fully with the Working Time Regulations, which includes an average working week of 48 hours or less.’

‘It is like they are on a treadmill’