THE DOCTOR WILL SEE YOU ALL NOW

GPs across England urging long-term ill to attend group sessions of up to 15 patients

PATIENTS are being urged to attend group GP appointments in order to save doctors time.

Up to 15 patients who have the same long-term condition, such as arthritis or diabetes, will take part in 90-minute ‘shared’ consultations – with their test results shown at the front of the room.

the sessions, led by family doctors or nurses, will replace shorter one-to-one appointments. GPs say they are more cost-effective and spare doctors having to repeat advice.

But campaigners warn some will be uneasy about sharing medical concerns and results with others they have never met – and shy patients may be unwilling to participate at all.

Group appointments have been piloted in Slough in Berkshire, London, Birmingham, Manchester, Sheffield, Newcastle and Northumberland. GPs say they could be extended further, and offered to pregnant women, men with prostate issues, and patients with high blood pressure or cancer.

Surgeries across the country are in crisis as a GP shortage coincides with a surge in patient demand. Last thursday, NHS England held a web conference for GPs to promote group appointments.

In Manchester, a nurse said patients had offered their own, rather blunt, advice to others in the room – telling them to ‘pull your socks up’ or ‘get a life’.

Rachel Power, of the Patients Association, said they would be ‘helpful for some patients’, but added: ‘We are concerned that these group consultations are said to replace traditional appointments, apparently without exception.’

Joyce Robins, of Patient Concern, said: ‘It’s certainly worth a try but if patients in that group aren’t happy, other arrangements must be made.’ Lib Dem health spokesman Baroness Jolly said it could give the chance for ‘longer, more indepth discussion’.

But Dr Amy Price, a British Medical Journal research fellow who has experience of the consultations in the US, warned they could ‘fracture care’.

‘the quiet people who probably need help the most are going to go home [in] the same [state they arrived in],’ she said.

Group consultations are normally held monthly, and GPs claim they are more relaxed than ten-minute private appointments and offer patients the chance to learn from each other.

In Slough the average blood sugar levels of diabetes patients fell after group consultations as they felt compelled to take better care of themselves.

Dr Richard Vautrey, of the British Medical Association’s GP committee, said: ‘You obviously have to be very careful about confidentiality and patients need to be mindful about not sharing things they wouldn’t want others to know.’

Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, of the Royal College of GPs, said the idea had potential but ‘won’t be for everyone or every condition’. East Berkshire clinical commissioning groups, which cover Slough, said patients ‘loved’ the consultations while Marion Lynch, South Central deputy director of NHS England, said they gave patients convenient access to GPs.

FIRST we had appointments via Skype, and receptionists screening out patients. Now comes the latest gimmick designed to free up GPs’ time: Patients suffering from similar illnesses are being urged to attend group appointments.

In theory, those who share long-term conditions such as diabetes, arthritis and even cancer can be helped together by a doctor and nurse, and potentially give each other advice. But isn’t the obvious danger of group care that crucial details about individual patients are missed – especially among those who are reluctant to speak in front of others about private ailments? Meanwhile, NHS England launches a major TV advertising campaign urging parents to take their sick children to a pharmacist instead of the GP or A&E, raising the risk of a serious condition such as sepsis or meningitis being missed.

Yes, the health service is under huge pressure. But the answer is for surgeries to stay open longer – and at weekends – not undermining the basic principles of care.