Appointments with a doctor should be 15 minutes, says BMA

GPs appointments should be lengthened to 15 minutes and limited to 25 a day per doctor, industry leaders have said.
By The Newsroom
Published 29th Aug 2016, 20:00 BST
GPs appointments should be lengthened to 15 minutes and limited to 25 a day per doctor, industry leaders have saidGPs appointments should be lengthened to 15 minutes and limited to 25 a day per doctor, industry leaders have said
GPs appointments should be lengthened to 15 minutes and limited to 25 a day per doctor, industry leaders have said

The British Medical Association (BMA) suggested the changes in a bid to stop general practice being “run into the ground”. The proposals come as part of Safe Working Levels in General Practice, a report which discusses measures which could help tackle growing workload of GPs.

Appointments are normally allocated 10 minutes, meaning that some doctors see up to 60 patients a day.

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The BMA said the time does not give GPs enough time to treat patients with complicated needs.

BMA GPs committee executive team member Brian Balmer said: “In a climate of staff shortages and limited budgets, GP practices are struggling to cope with rising patient demand, especially from an ageing population with complicated, multiple health needs that cannot be properly treated within the current 10-minute recommended consultation.”

Dr Balmer added: “The consultation time needs to increase to 15 minutes.”

An NHS England spokesman said: “How long to allocate to individual patient appointments is at the discretion of individual GP practices, based on patient need, and there are no national limits suggesting 10 minutes should be the norm. However, GPs are under pressure, so the recently published General Practice Forward View is substantially increasing investment and reforming care to free up GPs to spend more time with patients.”

Related topics:BMAGP practices