Four in 10 Doctors Struggle to Provide Patients With Sufficient Care Every Week, GMC Finds

Four in 10 doctors are struggling to provide patients with a sufficient level of care at least once a week, with inadequate staffing, administrative pressures and wider problems within the health system making it harder for doctors to deliver the care they believe patients need.

The General Medical Council (GMC) has published its Workplace Experiences 2026 report, drawing on its annual Barometer survey of more than 4,500 doctors alongside in-depth interviews and wider research into doctors’ working lives across the UK.

The findings show that 41% of doctors experience difficulties providing sufficient patient care at least once a week, rising to 60% among GPs.

Doctors told the GMC that good care should be timely, patient-centred and consider the needs of the whole person, but many said the conditions in which they are working make it difficult to consistently achieve that standard.

Staffing levels emerged as an important problem, with doctors describing how shortages can leave them covering additional work and managing competing demands. Administrative workload was another concern, reducing the time available for direct patient care.

Delays across the healthcare system remain a significant barrier. More than half of doctors, 53%, said delays in providing care, treatment or screening had affected their ability to provide good patient care during 2025.

Coordination between different parts of the health service is also causing difficulties. Just 20% of doctors agreed that coordination between primary and secondary care is currently effective, with growing complexity in patients’ needs and within the wider healthcare system adding to the pressure.

The GMC found that these pressures can take an emotional toll on doctors. Those who feel unable to provide sufficient care described frustration and a loss of professional fulfilment, while some spoke about experiencing moral injury as a result of being unable to deliver the standard of care they believe patients require.

However, the report also identifies examples of improvements being made within healthcare organisations. Around 26% of doctors said they had seen at least one improvement during the previous year which helped them provide good patient care.

Changes included better workforce planning, improvements to processes and workplace culture, greater support for staff wellbeing and the use of technology, including artificial intelligence, to reduce administrative work and free up doctors’ time.

Where doctors had experienced these improvements, the GMC found substantially higher levels of job satisfaction and a greater sense among doctors that they were able to influence change within their workplaces.

The findings suggest that while there have been improvements in some areas of doctors’ working lives, significant pressures remain within the health system.

With four in 10 doctors, and six in 10 GPs egularly struggling to provide the level of care they believe their patients need, the GMC’s latest findings highlight the continuing link between the conditions healthcare professionals work in and the quality of care they are able to provide.

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