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Exclusive: LMCs swamped by GPs suffering depression

Healthcare Republic News, 2012

LMC leaders have warned that increasing pressure to cut costs and referrals has triggered a sharp rise in GPs seeking help for stress and depression, GP can reveal.
Senior GPs said pressure on the profession was rising bec­ause of a combination of NHS reforms, the pay freeze on general practice and steadily rising workload.
Chief executive of Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire LMC Dr Peter Graves said he had seen a ‘significant number’ of GPs coming forward with stress, depression and addiction problems, some of whom required psychiatric referrals or time off work.
Cambridgeshire LMC chief executive Dr Guy Watkins said his LMC had seen an increasing call for pastoral care.
In the past year the LMC assisted 41 individual GPs (more than 5% of the LMC area) and 11 partnerships (10% of the LMC area).
‘One is that commissioning pressures are increasing tension between partners because they have different priorities.
Essex LMC chairman Dr Brian Balmer said: ‘I have heard reports of people who are res­igning and leaving general practice.
RCGP chairwoman and med­ical director of the practitioner health programme Dr Clare Gerada said it was important not to attribute stress and dep­ression simply to increased workload or NHS reform.
But she said that rising workload, caused in part by the expansion of GP hours and more consultations, was having an effect.
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