Doctors more sleep deprived now than after the pandemic, MDU survey finds (3 March 2025)

Summary

The UK's leading medical defence organisation, the Medical Defence Union (MDU), has carried out the survey of 481 doctor members. The proportion saying tiredness has impacted their ability to treat patients safely has increased from a quarter (26%) in 2022 to a third (35%) of doctors responding to the latest survey.

Content

MDU survey findings

• 89% of doctors felt sleep deprived at work some of the time, 22% said this happened daily and 19% weekly.
• 35% said tiredness had impaired their ability to treat patients and 34% said tiredness may have played a part.
• There were 69 near misses and 17 cases in which a patient sustained harm.
• 38% were rarely or never able to take breaks during the working day, including lunch breaks with 27% not having a staff room to take a break in.
• 62% said winter pressures had increased this year and added to tiredness levels.
• 90% want government to continue funding specialist practitioner support programmes.
• The most common reasons for tiredness were high patient demand (67%), being unable to take a break because of work pressures (65%), being unable to switch off outside work (50%) and no opportunity to eat/drink during a shift/session (29%).
• The most reported impacts of tiredness included poor concentration (72%) not looking after yourself (70%), difficulty switching off from work (62%), decision making difficulties (53%) and poor mental health (42%).

The MDU has called on the government and NHS employers to do more to ensure there are adequate resources in place to allow exhausted doctors to take regular breaks. This is part of a package of measures needed to support the health and wellbeing of the NHS workforce including the need to continue funding support services like Practitioner Health for those experiencing burnout.

Further reading on the hub:

• Managing fatigue as part of a safety culture – a blog from Nancy Redfern, Emma Plunkett and Roopa McCrossan
• Why we need to manage fatigue in the NHS – a blog from Nancy Redfern and Emma Plunkett
• Fatigue | Association of Anaesthetists