Long-standing staffing and service culture issues have been made worse by the impact of the pandemic, with the GMC warning that a fresh approach is vital to maintaining the healthcare workforce.

The GMC’s annual The state of medical education and practice in the UK report says that, despite current pressures, now is the time to retain and embed positive changes to ways of working that were a key part of UK health services’ initial response to coronavirus.

Otherwise, the paper warns, exhaustion and disillusionment will grow even more rapidly and more doctors will quit the profession, blunting the effects of initiatives to boost recruitment.

The GMC report reveals that high workloads are associated with doctors feeling unable to cope, and then resulting in an increased risk of dissatisfaction and burnout.

There is also evidence of a sustained increase in the proportion of doctors taking ‘hard steps’ – such making enquiries about a career change or applying to move – to leave the profession. Excluding retirement, more than 80 per cent of those planning to leave cited the impact of work on their well-being as a factor.

Charlie Massey, the GMC's chief executive, said: "Workloads and burnout levels are very worrying, and the pressures on our health services will remain challenging for the foreseeable future. The pandemic has had the effect of pressing ‘fast-forward’ on what was already a precarious situation. ‘We’re seeing exhaustion and dissatisfaction returning to levels which are bad for doctors and bad for patients. We need a shift of mindset in the way doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals work together, or there could be far-reaching consequences for patient safety.”