ArticleThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners2017
GPs' perceptions of workload in England: a qualitative interview study.
Article in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 72 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
72 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 123 citations in OpenAlex.
- Family physician perspectives on managing indirect patient care activities in the electronic inbox: a systematic mixed studies review.Family practice · 2025Pooled it
- Burnout among general practitioners, a systematic quantitative review of the literature on determinants of burnout and their ecological value.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Pooled it
- Trial
- A Virtual Integrated General Practitioner-Pediatrician Model of Care Implemented in Metropolitan and Rural Primary Care Settings: Qualitative Analysis of Clinician Perspectives on the SUSTAIN Model of Care.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Article
- Primary care provider's barriers to effective management of apparently resistant hypertension in Malaysian public primary health care and strategies to overcome them: a qualitative study.BMC primary care · 2026Article
- GP workforce sustainability to maximise effective and equitable patient care: a realist review.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2026Review
- General practitioners and management control through guidelines: a qualitative study of its effects on their practice.BMC primary care · 2026Article
- Bugbears in the Waiting Room: Revisiting Arber and Sawyer's Classic Study of GP Reception Work Using Ethnography in Eight English General Practices.Sociology of health & illness · 2025Article
- Article
- Trends in the shortfall of English NHS general practice doctors: repeat cross sectional study.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2025Article
- Primary care physicians' job satisfaction in eleven Western countries: a cross-sectional study.BMC primary care · 2025Article
- Influences on trust in the use of AI-based triage-an interview study with primary healthcare professionals and patients in Sweden.Frontiers in digital health · 2025Article
- Approaches to Reach Trustworthy Patient Education: A Narrative Review.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Psychosocial work environment in Swedish primary healthcare: a cross-sectional survey of physicians' job satisfaction, turnover intention, social support, leadership climate and change fatigue.Human resources for health · 2024Article
- Understanding access to general practice through the lens of candidacy: a critical review of the literature.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2024Review
- GP workload and patient safety.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2024Article
- Understanding general practitioner and pharmacist preferences for pharmacogenetic testing in primary care: a discrete choice experiment.The pharmacogenomics journal · 2024Article
- Article
- The real work of general practice: understanding our hidden workload.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2024Article
- Team players and helpers - describing professional identity among finnish physicians in a cross-sectional study.BMC medical education · 2024Article
12 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundGPs report the lowest levels of morale among doctors, job satisfaction is low, and the GP workforce is diminishing. Workload is frequently cited as negatively impacting on commitment to a career in general practice, and many GPs report that their workload is unmanageable.
aimTo gather an in-depth understanding of GPs' perceptions and attitudes towards workload. DESIGN AND
settingAll GPs working within NHS England were eligible. Advertisements were circulated via regional GP e-mail lists and national social media networks in June 2015. Of those GPs who responded, a maximum-variation sample was selected until data saturation was reached.
methodSemi-structured, qualitative interviews were conducted. Data were analysed thematically.
resultsIn total, 171 GPs responded, and 34 were included in this study. GPs described an increase in workload over recent years, with current working days being long and intense, raising concerns over the wellbeing of GPs and patients. Full-time partnership was generally not considered to be possible, and many participants felt workload was unsustainable, particularly given the diminishing workforce. Four major themes emerged to explain increased workload: increased patient needs and expectations; a changing relationship between primary and secondary care; bureaucracy and resources; and the balance of workload within a practice. Continuity of care was perceived as being eroded by changes in contracts and working patterns to deal with workload.
conclusionThis study highlights the urgent need to address perceived lack of investment and clinical capacity in general practice, and suggests that managing patient expectations around what primary care can deliver, and reducing bureaucracy, have become key issues, at least until capacity issues are resolved.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.