{"id":275778,"date":"2025-11-21T17:28:51","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T17:28:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/275778\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T17:28:51","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T17:28:51","slug":"why-thousands-of-nhs-gps-are-cutting-their-hours-despite-plan-to-increase-access-to-doctors-gps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/275778\/","title":{"rendered":"Why thousands of NHS GPs are cutting their hours despite plan to increase access to doctors | GPs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Much of the health secretary\u2019s plans to reinvent the NHS hinge on moving services from bed-blocked, overstretched hospitals<\/a> to \u201cneighbourhood health centres\u201d where possible, and to general practice.<\/p>\n

However, while Wes Streeting hopes to make it easier for patients to see their doctor, thousands of GPs<\/a> have been dramatically cutting back their surgery hours in recent years.<\/p>\n

Just one in 13 early career GPs now work full-time, according to NHS<\/a> figures.<\/p>\n

A Guardian analysis of official data found that the typical GP works five hours a week less than they did in 2017. The number working full-time in England<\/a> has fallen by a third.<\/p>\n

Graphic showing the share of GPs, categorised by age, who are working full time<\/a><\/p>\n

The figures \u2013 which exclude GPs in training or working as locum doctors \u2013 show that doctors are increasingly choosing to work part-time. Just 7,480 were listed as working more than 37.5 hours a week in September, compared with more than 11,000 in 2017.<\/p>\n

The shift in declared hours has mainly been driven by younger and early middle-aged GPs near the start of their careers. Fewer than 8% of 30- to 34-year-old GPs work full-time \u2013 down from 22% in March 2017. There has been a similar decrease among 35- to 40-year-olds and 40- to 44-year-olds.<\/p>\n

Recently qualified GPs appear to be unwilling or unable to do a full-time working week of clinical duty on the NHS. Dozens of GPs got in touch with the Guardian to share why they had cut their hours or were looking to do so, with most early career GPs blaming the unrelenting stress of the job.<\/p>\n

Yasmin*, a 29-year-old GP from Leicestershire, realised even before completing training that she had underestimated the pressures of the job.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pace was unsustainable for me,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen you\u2019re always late to leave work, making decisions all day and facing people\u2019s constant anger about the service you are offering, it\u2019s easy to feel resentful, like you want to wrench your life back from the thankless, unyielding claws of the NHS, and of the general public.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yasmin works two days a week in a clinical GP role. \u201cI\u2019m paid for 16.5 hours but work for about 22, as I arrive early, leave late, and never take my breaks,\u201d she said. \u201cFor the rest of the week, I teach GP residents. I\u2019m already at my limit.\u201d<\/p>\n

While most GPs are working less than full-time contractually, the BMA says that they may be putting in additional unpaid hours to do administrative work, a point that was made by various respondents.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile many GPs are part-time on paper, in reality they are working above their contracted hours,\u201d said Joe, 33, from Brighton who is also working two days a week as an NHS GP.<\/p>\n

\u201cA full GP day is eight hours 20 minutes, but my surgery is open for patients for nine and a half hours, and I can\u2019t remember the last time I had a lunch break. Add a couple of hours of paperwork, and it\u2019s usually approaching 11-12 hours a day. This is very mentally draining, and I feel at high risk of burnout if I were to do this more regularly.\u201d<\/p>\n

A lack of GPs, however, is not the problem: while salaried GPs across all age groups have been reducing their hours, many locum GPs are struggling to find work, as practices hire fewer locums and salaried GPs due to NHS reforms that have led to budget constraints.<\/p>\n

Lucy-Jane, an unemployed GP from Devon who completed her training in 2023, was among scores of locum doctors who reported that they were struggling to find work despite millions of patients struggling to see their GP<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe year before I qualified, there were still lots of jobs in general practice, but the work gradually dried up,\u201d she said. \u201cI feel that I\u2019m on the scrapheap. Friends and family find it shocking that I can\u2019t get a job, and everyone talks about how they are desperate to see a GP.\u201d<\/p>\n

The total number of GPs has increased in recent years. A recent study<\/a> in the British Medical Journal found that more GPs are being trained, but proportionally fewer are working in NHS general practice. More than a third of licenced GPs (19,900) were not working in NHS general practice<\/a> in 2024 \u2013 up from just 27% in 2015. Female GPs, younger GPs, UK-qualified GPs, and GPs in London and the south-east were the most likely groups to be qualified but not working in the NHS.<\/p>\n

A 49-year-old part-time GP partner from Somerset said three of her trainees had emigrated to Canada soon after they had completed costly NHS training. \u201cThey are international graduates who came here to work, but now qualified find the NHS a hostile work environment and have moved to other countries with a better work-life balance,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

While many GPs who got in touch said they had reduced their hours or quit due to unsustainable workloads, burnout or to achieve a better work-life balance, many others, particularly older GPs, cited a lack of job satisfaction as the main reason \u2013 the perceived inability to do the job they had trained and signed up for.<\/p>\n

Anne Mellor, 52, an NHS GP partner from Doncaster, said she was planning to quit what used to be her \u201cdream job\u201d and retrain as a coach or counsellor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have reduced my hours to part-time over the past three years because the changes imposed upon us<\/a>, such as funding changes and being forced to work with other practices within Primary Care Networks, mean that we are providing a worse service to our patients,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Recent reforms, she said, had reduced the number of available local GP appointments, meaning patients now had to travel farther to be seen by unfamiliar locum doctors or nurse practitioners instead of their family doctor.<\/p>\n

Some GPs who got in touch cited not being able to find wraparound childcare as a reason for reducing their hours. Others said they and many of their colleagues had cut their hours to qualify for the government\u2019s free childcare offer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m older and started when working 100 hours a week, on average, was a normal part of the job,\u201d said Adam, a GP from the Midlands in his 50s. \u201cI now do four days a week, but almost none of my younger colleagues do more than three days [to qualify for free childcare].\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the most cited reasons among older GPs for reducing their hours was the motivation to escape what many described as punitive income taxation.<\/p>\n

Andrew, 61, a GP from Norfolk, said he had gone down to three and a half days because the pension system allowed him to draw more than \u00a33,500 monthly from his pension while working. \u201cI have more money working less. My patients now will need to wait longer to see me, and many will prefer to wait, to receive continuity of care.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tax incentives that tempt the most experienced GPs to reduce their hours, many pointed out, had substantial effects on the quality of care patients were receiving.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are an ageing population, and dealing with many co-morbidities in one patient is a major issue,\u201d said a 51-year-old GP from the north-west who is looking to reduce to three days soon, as \u201cworking longer hours is no longer in your interest financially\u201d.<\/p>\n

Older GPs going part-time or retiring early and being replaced by newly qualified part-time GPs, locums and lower-paid healthcare staff such as physiotherapists and nurses, she felt, was all part of the system\u2019s \u201cgradual deterioration\u201d. This echoed the views of scores of other doctors.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need experienced clinicians in the system to guide those lacking the expertise to deal with all these patients with complex problems, otherwise everything will collapse further.\u201d<\/p>\n

The total number of GPs has increased in recent years, despite the average GP reducing their hours \u2013 meaning the total hours worked by qualified permanent GPs a week are down by less than 1% overall.<\/p>\n

An NHS spokesperson said: \u201cThere are millions more general practice appointments for patients than before the pandemic, and increasing the number of GPs remains a key priority for the NHS to help improve access to care.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith nearly 1,300 more doctors added to general practice in the last year alone, offering greater flexibility for GPs including supporting portfolio careers is helping retain more staff and improve their working lives, while bringing additional skills into general practice.\u201d<\/p>\n

*Name has been changed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Much of the health secretary\u2019s plans to reinvent the NHS hinge on moving services from bed-blocked, overstretched hospitals…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275779,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102,2960,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-275778","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}