Expectations of public services in the UK are rising – both from the government and from the public themselves. At the same time, the professions providing those services are expected to be more accountable for the care they give. These factors are contributing to a major increase in work stress experienced by those working in the public sector across a whole range of occupational groups. General practitioners and their teams feel this stress very acutely. On one side the professions themselves recognise the need to improve and guarantee standards of care. On the other, the government argues for better access to already stretched primary care services. Doctors are increasingly held to account, through the establishment of health authority performance panels, through visits from the Commission for Health Improvement, and from the watchful eye of the National Clinical Assessment Authority. It’s no wonder they feel stressed. Building on years of work in this field, Usha and Jaya Rout have provided some ways forward for a stretched and stressed profession. After chapters which explain how stress arises at work, and the consequences that stress brings with it, they identify strategies for dealing with stress at both individual and practice level. This book is exceptionally timely, and will provide a way forward for many general practitioners and their teams, and allow them to move out of the vicious spiral that stress often produces.
