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Primary care physician burnout got worse in developed nations around the world during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Commonwealth Fund published “Stressed Out and Burned Out: The Global Primary Care Crisis,” a survey of 9,526 physicians in the United States, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, from February to September this year.
The survey findings “confirm what many fear could be true: The pandemic is taking an alarming toll on the well-being of our primary care workforce both here in the U.S. and around the world,” Commonwealth Fund President David Blumenthal, MD, MPP, said in an online meeting to discuss the survey.
“Primary care doctors are burned out, stressed, and overworked. Many feel that the pandemic has negatively impacted the quality of care, they are providing,” Blumenthal said. “For decades, we’ve known that the U.S. and many other countries have faced a shortage of the primary care physicians. And these latest findings suggest that, without interventions, this shortage may soon reach record levels.”
Blumenthal discussed the results with coauthors Munira Z. Gunja, senior researcher for the Commonwealth Fund’s International Program in Health Policy and Practice Innovations, and Reginald D. Williams II, vice president for International health policy and practice innovations.