Debrief: Consultation length matters

The second BJGP Research Conference went out in style with a stirring keynote from Clare Gerada. She suggested, provocatively, that GPs need to stop being martyrs and decide what they are going to give up. We can’t do it all and we have to let go of something to sustain ourselves.

She offered one idea: we should abandon care of the very frail, very old patients. Let’s give it back to geriatricians and teams with the specialist skills. I’ll leave her to argue that one. She also mentioned, en passant, the problem of 10-minute consultations and I’ll take up the argument.

The 10-minute consultation is a glaring lose–lose that now represents a singular failure in the structure of UK general practice. They are a disservice to our patients and, importantly, to ourselves.

A …