A piece in yesterday´s Guardian reported the results of a survey by the Medical and Dental Defence Union of Scotland (MDDUS) that found that 7 in 10 Primary Care Doctors (GPs) in the UK are suffering from compassion fatigue. The effort of truly being there for their patients, compounded by massive workloads, is exhausting, and impacting the quality of care and ultimately – potentially – the safety of patients.
“Compassion fatigue is effectively a hidden, secondary trauma with symptoms that can ultimately make it extraordinarily difficult for family doctors to treat their patients,” said Dr John Holden, the Chief Medical Officer at MDDUS. GPs are “particularly vulnerable” to the syndrome because of their “prolonged exposure to patients’ suffering and trauma”, he said.
Other findings from the survey included the fact that 84% of GPs had experienced verbal abuse and 24% physical abuse by patients during 2024. And the most common reasons given were long waits for care (79% of GPs) and complaints about care (51%).
Prof Kamila Hawthorne, chair of the Royal College of GPs, said the results tallied with recent research their organisation had undertaken, that found 22% of family doctors were so stressed they felt – on average once or twice a week – that they could not cope.
As a church we are also a caring institution and we need to remember that out clergy and other church leaders can feel stress and fatigue from time to time., however committed they are to the well-being of their congregation and the church institution. Part of our care for our carers is to remind them to take time for themselves, and respect days off, non-work hours in the working day and vacations.
Read the full story in the Guardian here.