GPs now only have “two to three minutes” to deal with each health issue, MPs have been told.
The Royal College of GPs has given evidence in Parliament how chronic staffing shortages are worsening workloads treating an ageing population.
Chair Prof Martin Marshall told the Health and Social Care committee: “The kind of problems that we’re seeing in general practice, as well as medical advances, are far more complex than they were when I started my career.
“As a consequence of that, that makes each consultation more and more stressful.
“We know that the average consultation length is 9.8 minutes, and the average number of problems is just about three.
“So you got a complex problem and you’ve got two or three minutes to deal with it in a consultation. It doesn’t work.”
The Health Foundation told MPs that the Government’s funding formula meant that poorer areas were getting 7% lower funding for GP services than wealthier areas.
MPs also heard GPs are being overloaded by the impact of record Covid hospital waiting lists.
Dr Kate Fallon, a GP at Somerton House Surgery in Somerset, explained: “We have a 63-week wait to see a gastroenterologist at the moment.
“And what are all those patients doing? Well we’re holding them, we’re taking the risk, we’re trying to support them through that.
“So that is causing us an awful lot more patient contacts (compared to) if the service was more timely.
“It’s not just gastroenterology, but that’s the worst example.”
Prof Marshall said: “You’re constantly cutting corners and you’re constantly making compromises.
“And those compromises are most likely to fall on your ability to provide personalised care, person-centred care and equity of care as well.
“But increasingly, they’re putting pressure on our ability to provide safe care as well.
“A number of GPs I know who are just constantly worried that they’re going to make a prescribing error or a diagnostic error.”
A poll by the RCGP found that 34% of GPs said that they plan to retire in the next five years.
“That would be 14,000 fewer GPs than we have at the moment,” Prof Marshall added.
“So we’re likely to be losing more GPs than we’re recruiting and that is a massive crisis.
“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.”
