The Royal College of General Practitioners has launched an advertising campaign to urge General Practitioners to take more breaks for the safety of patients.

The campaign, called ‘Put Patients First’, is designed to push patient’s safety, to counter increasing rates of fatigue amongst GPs.

The campaign comes off a recent RCGP discussion paper highlighting the level of growing fatigue amongst GPs as a threat to patients.

Dr Maureen Baker, RCGP Chair stated: “Most people would not get on a plane flown by a tired pilot, or jump on a train where they knew the driver had already worked a 12-hour day - and most patients would not choose to be the 40th or 50th patient at the end of a long day in surgery.

“Rising patient demand, excessive bureaucracy, fewer resources, and a chronic shortage of GPs are resulting in worn-out doctors, some of whom are so fatigued that they can no longer guarantee to provide safe care to patients. GPs are currently seeing too many patients a day to be safe and at the end of a long day in clinic, we will still have a mountain of paperwork to get through.”

Are you an overworked GP? Let us know