GPs need to be freed from the constraints of the ten minute consultation to help meet their patients’ needs according to a major new British Medical Association (BMA) survey.
The poll also found that almost all GPs feel that their heavy workload is having a negative impact on the quality of patient services and many GP practices doubted they had the ability to provide blanket seven day opening. The survey heard from 15,560 grassroots GPs and is one of the largest recent tests of opinion of the profession.
The BMA will be releasing answers from the survey as part of the ‘No More Games’ campaign, which calls on politicians of all parties to have an honest and open debate about the future of the NHS. Key findings from the survey about the current state of GP services and patient care include:
- Only around one in ten GPs (8%) feel that the standard ten minute consultation is adequate.
- Two thirds of GPs (67%) feel there should be longer consultations for certain groups of patients, including those with long-term conditions, with one in four (25%) feeling all patients need increased time with their GP.
- Two-thirds (68%) of GPs believe that it is preferable to provide longer consultations of greater quality, even if it means waiting longer to see a GP for a routine appointment.
- More than nine in ten GPs (93%) say that their heavy workload has negatively impacted on the quality of patient services.
- Almost six out of ten GPs (56%) working in out of hours services feel that at times their workload is having a detrimental effect on the care they provide.
- GPs are willing to explore options to improve access, with a slight majority of GPs (51%) feeling that practices should offer some form of extended hours to patients.
- However, almost all GPs (94%) do not feel practices should offer seven day opening in their own practices.
- GPs are willing to explore options to improve access, with a one in five GPs (21%) suggesting they could provide extended hours by working in networks with other GPs through shared facilities.
- GPs believe that factors that could help better deliver the essentials of general practice include increased funding (76%), more GPs (74%), longer consultation times (70%) and a reduction in bureaucracy (64%).
Dr Chaand Nagpaul, BMA GP Committee chair, said: “GPs want to provide better services and spend more time with their patients, especially the increasing number of older people who often have a range of multiple health needs that require intensive, coordinated care. Unfortunately, this landmark poll highlights that GPs’ ability to care to patients is being seriously undermined by escalating workload, inadequate resourcing and unnecessary paperwork. Many GPs do not feel they have enough time to spend with their patients and that these intense pressures are beginning to damage local services.”
