Rush me, I’m a doctor
END THE GP CRISIS Hard-pressed GPs limit appointments to just five minutes
PATIENTS hit by Britain’s GP crisis are being limited to just FIVE minutes with their doctor.
Some surgeries are so under pressure they have had to halve normal 10-minute slots as patient numbers rise and fed-up doctors quit.
The revelation comes after a Royal College of General Practitioners report warned all appointments should be at least 15 minutes.
Readers nationwide reported the shock surgery turnarounds after the Sunday Mirror launched its campaign to end the GP crisis.
The shorter slots are on a “sit and wait” basis to discuss only “one acute condition”.
Examples include the Doctors’ House in Ilford, East London. Patient Intisar Shah told us: “You have to queue at the door at 8am for a so-called emergency five-minute appointment.”
He said he had queued only to miss out. He saw a mum and sick child turned away. “It’s something you might expect to see in the third world. But they are doing their best at my practice. The GP shortage has its roots elsewhere.”
At the Abbey Medical Practice in Evesham, Worcs, the website says it offers “5-minute emergency appointments, which operate on a sit and wait basis”. One worried patient told us: “How is a doctor supposed to have a decent chance of getting to the bottom of what is wrong in such a short time.
Shadow Health Secretary John Ashworth warned: “Years of Tory cuts are severely impacting patient care every day. Labour will train more GPs to guarantee more appointments for families.”
UK GP appointments last an average 9.2 minutes, much less than other developed nations. The Mirror campaign calls for funding for at least 5,000 trainee GPs a year to replace 1,600 places axed by the Tories.
DELAYED
It demands nearly 30 million extra appointments to shrink growing waiting times along with better working conditions to stop family doctors leaving. Last week we told how 15 million appointments were delayed more than 28 days in the 12 months to August.
A total of 55 million GP visits were after a wait of more than a fortnight.
The Department of Health and Social Care said: “Individual doctors decide on the length of appointments and if a patient needs a longer consultation, they will be given it.