Patient Time 'Must Increase'

Scottish GP's are calling for longer consultations with patients in order to help meet their needs.

Responding to a BMA survey, 37% of medics said their heavy workload is having a negative impact on the quality of care their patients receive, while just 8% believed the current recommended 10 minute consultation is adequate.

Almost two thirds (63%) said there should be longer consultations for certain groups of patients, including those with long term conditions, and almost one third (30%) said that all patients need more time with their GP.

More than nine out of 10 GPs (92%) believed their heavy workload has negatively impacted on the quality of care given to patients.

To improve the overall care patients receive, GPs in Scotland insist that longer consultation times should be the top priority (75%), followed by increased GP numbers (74%) and increased funding (69%)*.

Dr Colette Maule, co-negotiator of the BMA’s Scottish GP committee, said: “This survey reflects the immense pressure that GPs working across Scotland are feeling just now. 

“The rising workload is simply unsustainable and something has to change otherwise general practice will break.  Giving us more time with patients, expanding the GP workforce and supporting the practice based primary care team will help to ensure the quality of care our patients receive remains of a high standard.  In addition, providing stable funding arrangements to meet the rising costs of providing increasingly complex care in the community will alleviate some of the helplessness that GPs are clearly feeling just now.

“Politicians need to stop fixating on how they can demand more from general practice and instead focus on what they can do to support GPs to provide the quality of care that our patients deserve within the constraints that exist.”