Burnout is the modern day pandemic affecting the medical profession. It is a condition that many of us are still in denial of. After all, it can’t be seen on a biopsy result or under an electron microscope, so how real can it be?!

Very real.

Up to 59% of doctors are burnt out, and the rates of burnout have increased over the last 10 years. It would be unlikely to consider that this is simply because there is greater awareness of the condition.

50% of medical students and 70% junior doctors are reported to be burnt out.

This is staggering, and these results are across the board globally. Not just the USA and not just UK. These are overall global professional rates of burnout and the rates are deeply alarming.

Even if we had 30% of the profession suffering from burnout, this would still be a pandemic, yet there is not the global attention to this matter that it deserves.

If there was an outbreak of influenza or a critical disease globally that was wiping out even 5% of people and removing them from the work force, there would be a world wide inquiry.

Yet here we have matters where there are 59% rates of burnout, over half of the entire medical profession, including students, and there is no world wide inquiry into what is going on in medicine.

Certainly there is no vaccine likely to be available, but the matter is critical.

Ought not the World Health Organisation be taking a key interest in this matter?

Ought there not be a global inquiry into the culture of medicine and the attitudes of medicine towards doctors and health care professionals? Continue reading →