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Despite the fact that most GMC investigations are ultimately dismissed, such a tortuous process can't fail to leave dents. For those with a mortgage and mouths to feed, the ill effects can be more acute—as an MPS members' survey seemed to confirm.Dr. Gerada runs a service to care for mentally ill doctors in London and has gone so far as to call the NHS "an industrial hazard." One tweet he posted read, "Preparing for a day as a GP feels like preparing to go to battle. Sad, that the profession I love has become so undermined."So what's the solution? Umesh told me that, at his practice, "We are very lucky because every consultant knows they can contact me for help. I stood up in front of my team and I said the first week, 'No blaming, naming, shaming, or disciplining.' But there is accountability for all of us—we have to be honest and we have to learn." But without lots of Umeshes around to foster healthy team spirit with his "happy doctors, happy patients" mantra, it is urgent that structures are put in place to deal with the results of the problem on a systematic, national scale.Doctors' official communities are overwhelmingly in favor of national occupational health services that provide counseling and help for doctors who need it—like the Practitioner's Health Programme run by Dr. Gerada. Yet despite their success, the government is increasingly cutting funding to such services.Gerada's PHP had to close its doors a while back because it was overwhelmed by demand. One service in Cornwall lost its government backing for treating doctors that weren't being formally investigated already, which seems the very definition of a sticking plaster approach to the problem. While national occupational mental health coverage keeps being promised, the current reality is a postcode lottery.Doctors have likened their enduring, unreciprocated devotion to the NHS to an abusive relationship. They keep getting promises of change, and they keep on turning up even when these promises turn into abuse. Until someone at the top allocates part of the NHS budget to an occupational mental health service for doctors, you'll likely have to sit back and watch your GP push rocks up hills, before waltzing into their office hoping they're happy and sane enough to help you.