Increasing red-tape has played a key role in driving young doctors to leave general practice, according to a new study.
The study, in the British Journal of General Practice, reveals the motives of some 143 doctors under the age of 50 for leaving the NHS.
Researchers said the increase in administrative tasks and workload had “fundamentally” changed the doctor-patient relationship, according to the doctors in the study.
Senior GPs cited the burden of Care Quality Commission inspections as a key factor.
This had compromised their ability to practise patient-centred care, GPs say, according to researchers from the universities of Bath, Bristol and Staffordshire.
The findings follow research showing growing numbers of practices closing their lists to new patients, partly because of the difficulty of recruiting GPs.
Dr Tim Ballard, a vice-chair of the Royal College of GPs, said practices now faced “overwhelming” levels of red tape.
He said: “With more and more of our working hours being taken up with form-filling, ticking boxes and preparing for CQC practice inspections, we are drowning in red tape and this only serves to keep us away from delivering frontline patient care, which is why we become doctors in the first place.”
He added: “We need to make general practice an attractive option for medical students, but also a profession that doctors want to remain in for many years – and a good starting point would be to cut a lot of the non-urgent paperwork and red tape that is keeping us from doing our real job; providing high quality, safe patient care.”
Dr Richard Vautrey, deputy chair of the British Medical Association’s GP committee, also backed the findings.
He said: “General practice is increasingly becoming a stressful environment as GPs are working in a climate of falling funding, rising workload and staff shortages.
“Many are drowning in pointless paperwork which takes them away from what they want to do: treat patients.
He added: “It is unsurprising that there are increasing signs that hard working GPs are buckling under the pressure and being forced to take a break, a situation which is not only deeply upsetting for the individuals involved, but also reduces the NHS’ capacity to provide services to the public.”
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