GP consultations in the UK shortest in the developed world

Health leaders are warning that the length of NHS GP consultations are ‘crazy’ and are threatening patient care.

The current average GP consultation length in the UK is ten minutes, which is the shortest in the developed world.

There are currently 44 plans in England to reduce hospital care and push health services into the community, which could destabilise care at GP surgeries.

The number of GP consultations has risen by nearly 25 per cent in the last five years and GPs have warned that partly due to the ageing population, more patients are presenting with complex conditions that cannot be dealt with within the current duration of ten minutes.

According to research by the Health Foundation, based on information gathered from 11 countries, including the United States, Australia, France and Germany, the amount of time patients spend with GPs in the UK is the lowest in the developed world.

Dr Helen Stokes-Lampard, president of the Royal College of GPs, said “We have the shortest consultations in Europe. It’s a crazy situation.

“They want to push more care out of hospitals, but we do not have the resources or infrastructure in the community to cope.

“We need to provide more complex care. That takes time – longer than the 10 minutes we get now.  I really worry what will happen.

“The typical patient has a range of multiple conditions. They can have diabetes and heart disease and some moderate depression.  Patients can be on 10 medicines.  You can’t possibly provide good care in 10 minutes to these sort of patients.”

The BMA’s Dr Chaand Nagpaul, agreed, saying “We spend less than other European countries. We have fewer doctors than other European nations.

“We have one third of the hospital beds per head compared to Germany for example. GPs spend less time per patient than any other European nation.  We need to be addressing these issues as a priority.”

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Posted by Karen Motley, Paralegal, Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (karenmotley@chadlaw.co.uk), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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