GP warns short appointments are “not safe”

As reported by the Leicester Mercury, general practitioners have issued a warning to MPs as to the dangers of shorter appointment times

Dr Andrew Green spoke on the backlog of NHS appointments and the need for more government funding.

“We need to accept that 10-minute appointments are not safe. The only way that you can run a 10-minute appointment surgery on time is by cutting corners. Experience helps that process, but we are deluding ourselves if we think that we’re always safe,” Dr Green told the Parliamentary committee.

The comments come after similar reports by Professor Martin Marshall, head of the Royal College of GPs and Jeremy Hunt MP, on the current “crisis” in the sector.

Dr Green warned that family doctors are often only given “two to three minutes” per appointment. He said: “I’ve been a GP for just over 30 years – I’ve seen ups and downs over that time in the state of as a general practice and general practice’s ability to do its job, but I’ve never seen things as low as they are now”.

Professor Marshall told MPs of the issues surrounding GP retention and plans by 34% of GPs to retire in the next five years. He said: “That would be 14,000 fewer GPs than we have at the moment. So we’re likely to be losing more GPs than we’re recruiting and that is a massive crisis”.

Latest reports are that a record 6.1m people are waiting for hospital care in England, some of which are having to wait 63 weeks for specialist treatment.