‘I just felt either I’m going to kill someone or I’m going to end up killing myself’. How does it feel to be burnt out as a practicing UK GP?

Objective To explore how it feels to be a burnt out GP in the NHS.Design In depth qualitative interviews with 16 UK GPs with self-declared ‘lived experience’ of burnout.Setting United Kingdom Primary Care.Results Seven male and nine female GPs described their experiences of burnout to a peer researcher. Themes identified were exhaustion and depersonalisation, mental and physical illness, identity and existential crises, and finally tenacity and resilience. Participants were self-reflective and described distress, shame, stigma, and guilt, including times of suicidal behaviour and isolation due to their burnout.Conclusions Burnout threatens a GP’s sense of identity, purpose, and functioning in their lives, and ultimately can be life-threatening. Active listening to GP distress and a system wide approach to managing distress and burnout is urgently required.