A new research has found that about half of the general practitioners are suffering from burnouts mainly due to increased stress. Male doctors are at a higher risk of burnout than their female counterparts. Researchers found that doctors who work in group practices and those who repeatedly see the same patients were at a higher risk of burnout. The researchers used the Maslach Burnout Inventory to access 564 out of 789 eligible GPs working in Essex in one of the largest studies of its kind in the UK.

They relied on a list of questions that evaluate emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, which is expressed as negativity and cynicism and also a reduced sense of sense of personal accomplishment in order to measure burnout.The report stated: "The NHS nationally and locally needs to review its policies, especially when generating increased pressures for this, the largest group of NHS doctors."

Dr Peter Orton, of Aviation Medica, said that group practice creates additional demands on practitioners and also increases the possibility of interpersonal tensions and conflicts.He also said that the results of the study are concerning as the number of group practices are increasing in the UK. The study has been published in the journal BMJ Open.