Safety fears over GPs forced to deal with 70 patients every day
GPS are carrying out up to 70 consultations a day – nearly three times the safe level, a major study has found.
They are undertaking an average of 41.6 patient contacts a day – face-to-face consultations as well as those over the phone or on the internet.
However, a fifth of doctors have in excess of 50 consultations a day and some have 70 or more. EU officials recommend that GPs should carry out no more than 25 a day.
Family doctors say their workload is ‘unsafe’ because it is making them more prone to mistakes. Many are deciding to quit or take early retirement, which is leaving the remaining doctors with even more patients to see.
The figures come from a survey by Pulse magazine which asked 899 GPs how many patient contacts they carried out on a typical day. A total of 21 per cent carried out 50 or more, including 4 per cent who said they did 70 or more. Surgeries are coming under increasing pressure from the ageing population, migration and the fact that patients are being prescribed more medication – which requires follow-ups.
At the same time there is a recruitment crisis, with rising numbers of doctors retiring or quitting – and not being replaced been saying for years – that many GPs are regularly working way beyond what could be considered safe for patients, and potentially jeopardising our own wellbeing.
‘GPs expect to be busy, and we are making more consultations than ever before, but the workload is relentless and it’s taking its toll.
‘It is not necessarily the number of consultations we are making, it’s the content of those consultations, and our patients are increasingly presenting with more complex, chronic conditions – many of which require much longer than the standard ten-minute consultation.’
Dr Richard Vautrey, chairman of the British Medical Association’s GP committee, said: ‘We know that unmanageable and unsafe workload is the primary reason behind doctors leaving general practice, which is leading to serious issues including practices closing to new patients and some closing entirely.
‘ This workload pressure also means GPs are increasingly suffering
‘The workload is relentless’
from burnout and patients are being put at risk.’
The European Union of General Practitioners has recommended that GPs have no more than 25 patient contacts a day.
Its vice president Dr Mary McCarthy, a GP in Stoke-on-Trent, said doctors in other EU countries offer patients 30-minute appointments.
Although GPs are unhappy about their workload, they benefited hugely from a contract negotiated in 2004 which allowed them to opt out of evening and weekend work. In addition, many close their surgeries for several hours over lunch or on certain afternoons.
An NHS England spokesman said: ‘Fortunately the number of new doctors choosing to train as GPs is at a record high and, together with extra practice pharmacists and therapists, this should over time help ease these pressures.’
A spokesman for the Department of Health and Social Care said: ‘We know GPs are under pressure – that’s why we are committed to an extra 5,000 doctors in general practice by 2020.’
WHY are GPs carrying out up to 70 consultations a day – nearly three times the safe level?
Our population is ageing. People have become more hooked on medication. Maybe the ‘ snowflake generation’ is needier than its predecessors. And of course – the elephant in the room – the population increase due to migration has placed huge strains on the service.
So what must be done? Maybe it would help if so many surgeries didn’t close for an afternoon, or even a full day during the week. And – if it’s not too outrageous a suggestion – perhaps they might even consider opening at weekends.