The doctor will see you now – with you both standing up
MOST of us are used to the familiar greeting of ‘please take a seat’ at the beginning of a doctor’s appointment.
But that may soon be a thing of the past under a scheme to introduce standing GP consultations across the NHS.
A selection of GPs will be given convertible standing desks next year as part of a pilot study conducted by Loughborough University. It is hoped that the standing appointments will make GPs ‘role models’ for patients, helping both become more active.
But the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) warned it was important that patients – especially those with mobility issues – are not made to feel uncomfortable.
Amanda Daley, professor of behavioural medicine at Loughborough University, said that patients will still be able to sit if they wish. She said: ‘Historically,
GPs and patients sit... to facilitate good doctor-patient rapport. But we also know that GPs spend a long time sitting down during the working day – which can contribute to poor health outcomes – and evidence suggests that doctors often neglect their own health.
‘We need to find ways of getting GPs on their feet and moving more often. Standing consultations could help GPs to be more active, as well as highlighting to patients the importance of reducing and breaking up their sitting time.’
She added: ‘We want the GPs to be standing in their job... but obviously the extra bit is also being a role model and getting the patients to be more active, or certainly standing more.’
From spring, GPs in the Midlands will wear activity trackers to provide data about their movements during and after the working day. They will be given the desks to use in 30 to 40 half-day sessions over four to six weeks. They will be asked about their wellbeing, productivity and activity level before and after they have used the desks. Patients will be quizzed when they leave as well.
The desks, which cost around £2,000, can move from standing to seated formats with the push of a button. GPs will be able to use their discretion as to whether they stay standing. For patients who are elderly, frail, pregnant, disabled or about to receive bad news, it may be more appropriate to be seated.
Professor Daley added: ‘If you come in for a repeat prescription there’s no reason to sit – sitting just takes up more time – so it might be that for certain types of consultation it makes things quicker, and for others it’s just not appropriate. For example, if someone comes in for a cancer diagnosis, you might just want to sit.’
Helen Stokes-Lampard, of the RCGP, said: ‘[It] could be an effective way of having productive conversations with some of our patients, particularly around “lifestyle” issues and highlighting the need for us all to reduce our sitting time and move more.’
The RCGP has warned that the entire profession could ‘crumble’ after half of GPs said appointments are too short. A survey of 1,500 family doctors found that 53 per cent believe ten-minute appointments put patients in danger.