Doctor fights back tears after GP under ‘unbearable pressure’ takes her own life

Published 07/08/2022 · Updated 08/08/2022

A Greater Manchester GP fought back tears on national television as she detailed the strain doctors were currently under. It follows comments from the husband of a GP who took her own life blaming her death on the “unbearable pressure” of the job. The body of mum-of-two Dr Gail Milligan was discovered in woodland in Bracknell in Berkshire on Thursday, July, 28, 24 hours after she was reported missing from home.

Her husband Christopher Milligan posted an emotional tribute to his “wonderful, beautiful, funny and absolutely bananas wife, mother and doctor” in which he also described the huge workload she faced and in which he wanted to raise awareness of the pressures doctors are under reports Berkshire Live. READ MORE: Greater Manchester’s best and worst GPs as one rated best in country – how did your doctors score? “Her job as a partner at a GP surgery became overwhelming,” he said. “Especially during the pandemic.

She was seeing patients face-to-face the whole time, as well as the unbelievable amount of telephone consultations that were happening. “She saw old people dying in care homes during the pandemic and was working at the vaccine centres. The pressure of not making mistakes, and the endless emails and paperwork, meant that for the last few years of her life she’d been neglecting herself.

Dr Gail Milligan whose husband has blamed her death on the pressure of her job

“She used to leave for work at 6.45am and not get home until usually between 7.30pm and 8pm.

When she arrived at home she would generally work until I made her go to bed at 11pm. “That was a ‘lazy’ four days a week. On her ‘lazy’ day off on Thursdays, she would work for about 12 hours.

Meetings on Zoom and Microsoft Teams, never-ending emails and calls. This tipped over into the weekends more recently. The same workload all weekend.

“Very recently she hasn’t even had time for an hour’s dog walk. All that and running the business of the practice. Human resources was her responsibility too and, sadly, it turned out to be the thing that broke her.

“Last Sunday afternoon she opened an email that hit her so hard that she never recovered. She went into a deep, deep, depression. She had lost the ability to think rationally.

Something had gone wrong in her head. By the time we realised what was happening, it was already too late.”

Dr Helen Wall on BBC Breakfast

Speaking about the tragedy on BBC Breakast on Saturday morning, Bolton GP Dr Helen Wall became emotional as she outlined the toll the current pressures on the primary care system were taking on doctors. Dr Wall, who is a partner at The Oaks Family Practice at Crompton Health Centre as well as being involved with Bolton’s Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) said: “What people need to understand is that GPs chose general practice by and large because they want to follow patients through their life.

“We follow patients, we develop relationships with patients from cradle to grave. You know I’ve got patients I have seen go through ups and downs of life. “And because of that relationship that we have, we too are really, really distressed when our patients can’t access when they’re waiting for appointments when they’re waiting for things.

When we can’t give them what we feel they need or deserve, we take that home with us. “We think about those patients at home. We try.

You know I have been in the practice late at night sending letters, emails, trying to get patients seen. We carry that on a day-to-day basis. “And then when you open the paper and it says GPs are closed, they’re not working, they don’t want to work, they don’t want to see patients.

We want to see our patients, we want to see all our patients face-to-face. “The facts of the matter are, there’s not enough of us, we can’t do that anymore. We’re trying against all hope to try and contact and deal with as many patients as we can everyday.

“But as Gail’s husband said, that often means we’re staying late at work, we’re going home, sorting the children out then logging back on to do letters, to deal with blood reports. “It’s not uncommon for me to log on on a Sunday night just to try and clear work for the Monday so that we hit the ground running. I know I’m not alone in that.

It’s a common thing, it’s happening across all my colleagues.” Sharing the clip on Twitter afterwards she said: “Got a little bit emotional this morning on @BBCBreakfast “I don’t want to lose any more colleagues to this job.

I’ve been contacted by so many of you with support. Thank you and please pass this support to your own GPs and health staff. #TeamGP.” However, she was inundated with support on the social media site.

Deputy Mayor of Bolton Coun Linda Thomas said: “Thanks for everything you do @DrWallBolton & for caring so much. “Shouldn’t have to keep explaining yourself. It’s been known for years our numbers of GPs dwindling.

Afraid as per usual no one in positions of responsibility listening. Days of relying on goodwill not enough!” A user called Chelsea said: “I’m so sorry for the hate directed at your profession.

As a vet I’ve some understanding of that but the huge amount of vitriol you have dealt with these 2.5yrs esp is staggering. “Understaffed w grter pressures. Pls know a large proportion of the public support you and the NHS.”

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