Call for patients to get more time with GP

FAMILY doctors should extend the standard ten-minute consultation time for patients who are most in need, a Government review suggests.

Lengthening the time – thought to be the shortest in the developed world – would improve care and increase GPs’ job satisfaction, it is argued.

Patients often struggle to get appointments and are being put at risk by hurried consultations, the interim report into general practice found.

Dr Nigel Watson, who is leading the review, said making consultation times longer was one of a number of areas to explore, but admitted that it would inevitably increase difficulties in getting an appointment in the first place.

‘Clinically, GPs are expected to pick up more and more work, and with the focus on improved access, other things are compromised,’ he told Pulse magazine.

He said NHS leaders must find ways to make general practice more attractive to new doctors entering the profession and give incentives to older doctors to stop them retiring early. Rising demand and falling GP numbers have left the primary care system ‘fragile’, he added.