Working for the NHS may once have been a decision that lasted the length of a doctor’s career but many of today’s medics are now considering early retirement or work abroad, The Times / Doctors.net poll reveals.

While few are openly contemplating a move to the private sector, almost half of respondents said they were planning early retirement or taking up positions outside Britain. Just over a third said they expected to work for the NHS until normal retirement age.

Many said they still felt that the NHS was one of the best health services in the world but their loyalty was being sorely tested by what they viewed as excessive bureaucracy. Only a minority believed the Government’s reform agenda would maintain or improve standards of care. These are not doctors disillusioned with the NHS per se (although a minority are) but with the direction it has taken under Labour.

Nowhere is this shown more clearly than in the answers to questions about the National Programme for IT, a £20 billion plan to put every patient’s medical record on line and provide doctors with access to it.

Asked if they were optimistic that it would change the way the health service is run, 91 per cent said no, and only 9 per cent yes. More than three quarters (76 per cent) agreed that “overall it has been a frustrating project”, but only 14 per cent believed it should be abandoned.

However, few favoured pouring more money into the scheme to ensure success. A massive majority (93 per cent) opposed that idea, with a mere 7 per cent in favour.

Asked what they would like to see changed, doctors voted for less bureaucracy (49 per cent) and less administration (13 per cent). No other changes, including more doctors or more funding, claimed more than 7 per cent support.

Individual comments spelt out the frustrations. While some asked for the sky — “better politicians” — many more backed the idea of keeping politicians out of the NHS altogether, and running it with a nonpolitical governing body like the one that sets interest rates for the Bank of England. Once even suggested that Richard Branson should be recruited to run the NHS.

Depoliticisation was a recurrent theme, while many doctors called for greater medical involvement in decision-making, and fewer changes from the top, or for political ends. “Devise a plan and stick to it” one doctor said.

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