GP lack of time means one in ten appointments take place over the telephone

A report following research by the Kings Fund, has shown that fewer face to face appointments are being offered by GPs, with ten per cent of patients being given advice over the telephone, due to lack of time.

This figure is up from eight per cent two years ago during the same period.

Researchers involved in the study said that GPs were finding it difficult to deal with the pressure of an ageing population and migration demands, and warned that practices were potentially facing their worst winter in ten years.

Hospitals are also under ever increasing pressure, with routine operations and Accident & Emergency waiting times at their highest in ten years, and targets being missed across the board.

The BMA’s GP committee chairman Chaand Nagpaul, said “This is the result of an agenda by the Government to move care out of hospitals and an expanding older population. This is not an exaggeration; this is what is happening on the ground.”

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Posted by Tony May, Partner/head of Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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