Britain: Seven out of ten doctors suffer from “fatigue of empathy” for patients

Seven out of ten generals suffer from the so-called “fatigue of empathy”. This is a gradual loss of empathy towards their patients, according to a poll published on “Guardian” on Tuesday (01.01.2025). According to the survey, general doctors at 71% and doctors at 62% in Britain have experienced “fatigue of empathy”, which undermines the doctor-patient relationship. CORVERSE The results relate to younger medical professionals, aged 25 to 34, who appear to be most affected by the phenomenon. Family doctors say they are exhausted both emotionally and physically by hearing the problems of their patients. “Emotion fatigue is essentially a hidden, secondary trauma with symptoms that ultimately can make it extremely difficult for family doctors to care for their patients,” explains Dr. John Holden of MDDUS. ADVERSE Moreover, 85% of the general doctors who had suicidal thoughts attributed this situation to their working conditions, which they consider degraded due to lack of resources. After all, nearly half (44%) of research participants are concerned that empathy fatigue makes it more likely to make a medical mistake. Finally, as Dr. Holden warns, it is the safety of patients at stake. This poll was conducted by the Scottish Association of Medical and Dentistry Protection (MDDUS), an organisation providing support to health professionals, in a sample of 1,855 physicians across the United Kingdom. The same poll also found that: 21% of respondents have thought at least once about hurting themselves or committing suicide, 84% of general doctors received verbal assault and 24% physical assault from their patients within 2024 and the most frequent reasons were the long waiting lists for medical care (79%) and complaints about care provision itself (51%). The new Labour government, elected at the beginning of July, has set as a priority the upgrading of the public health system (NHS), which has run out of giant patient waiting lists for treatment and professional deficiencies. It is also committed to releasing additional resources of £22.6 billion by 2026.