Burton Mail

GPS want 15-minute appointmen­ts to be made standard

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ONE in five GP appointmen­ts in Staffordsh­ire last five minutes or less, according to the NHS.

It comes as the Royal College of GPS (RCGP) wants 15-minute sessions to be made standard so patients with complex health needs can get the right care.

But the group said doctors are working under “intense pressure” as figures show falling numbers of fulltime, fully qualified GPS.

NHS Digital has published figures for the first time on the length of GP appointmen­ts recorded across the country. Across the six clinical commission­ing groups (CCGS) covering Staffordsh­ire, 254,043 appointmen­ts (19.9%) attended in the four months to March this year lasted between one and five minutes.

A further 344,155 appointmen­ts (26.9%) were recorded as having lasted between six and 10 minutes, while 269,435 (21.1%) were between 11 and 15 minutes.

In the East Staffordsh­ire CCG area, 25.6% of attended appointmen­ts with a known duration were completed within five minutes – the highest proportion of any area locally. However, the figure stood at just 15.6% in the Stoke-on-trent CCG area, which was the lowest

proportion lasting five minutes or less out of more than 100 CCG areas in England.

However, NHS Digital said that different practices recorded the length of appointmen­ts in slightly different ways, which could affect comparison­s between areas.

Across England, 16.7 million appointmen­ts recorded between December 2021 and March this year were completed within five minutes – 22.7% of all those with a known length. Meanwhile, 19.6 million (26.6%) lasted between six and 10 minutes, and 14.4 million (19.6%) from 11 to 15 minutes.

Overall, GP practices recorded 29.6 million appointmen­ts in March alone, which was 4.2 million more than the previous month and 5.5 million above February 2020 – the last full month before the Covid-19 pandemic.

Professor Martin Marshall, chair of the RCGP, said: “Increasing­ly, patients are living with complex physical and mental health needs, which is reflected in today’s figures that show almost 40% of patients being seen for longer than 10 minutes in general practice – and more than half if you exclude those with an unknown length.

“Patients with complex health problems need to have more time with their doctor, so we can ensure they are receiving the care they need, which is why the college has called for 15-minute GP appointmen­ts as standard.

“This is not to say every patient will need this time as some simple conditions can be dealt with in less, particular­ly if it is not the GP they are seeing – for example, a simple blood test might only take a few minutes of a practice nurse’s time.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokespers­on said: “We are working with the NHS to improve access to GPS, tackle the Covid backlog, and grow the general practice workforce to ensure everyone receives the care they need.

“There were over 1,600 more doctors working in general practice in December 2021 compared to 2019, a record-breaking number started training as GPS last year, and we’ve invested £1.5 billion until 2025 to create an extra 50 million appointmen­ts per year.”

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A doctor treats a patient

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