NHS patients getting less time with their GPs compared to other developed countries

Patients in 28 countries, including Cyprus, Peru and Lithuania get longer with their GP

The average appointment varies from just 48 seconds in Bangladesh to 22.5 minutes in Sweden (PA)

The average time a British patient spends with their GP will not match the current length of consultations in Lithuania, Belgium and Portugal until 2086 if trends continue, a new study has found.

With an average appointment time of 9.22 minutes, British patients see their family doctor for less time than patients in the United States, Sweden, Canada, Spain and Japan.

But GP leaders said family doctors were working “harder than ever” and limits on appointment lengths are the only way to ensure resources stretch to every patient.

Available data shows the average appointment in the UK has increased by 4.2 seconds a year, according to the study published in BMJ Open. If current trends continue, by 2086 UK patients would have appointments that are 15 minutes long, they say.

Patients in France already have 16-minute appointments while those in the US have 21.07 minutes of face-to-face time with their GP and Swiss patients are seen for an average of 17 minutes. Those in Lithuania, Belgium, Portugal, Luxembourg, Iceland, Cyprus and Peru currently have 15-minute consultations.

New analysis, led by experts at Cambridge University, examined data on average consultation length across 67 countries. They found that patients in 28 countries had longer consultations than British patients.

The authors wrote that a recent survey of GPs, including some from the UK, found that over a third were “dissatisfied” with the time they could spend with each patient.

Their analysis examined 178 studies to determine GP consultation lengths.

They found that the average appointment varied from just 48 seconds in Bangladesh to 22.5 minutes in Sweden. There were 15 countries with appointment times of less than five minutes, 25 countries with a consultation length of five to 9.9 minutes, 11 countries with 10 to 14.9 minutes, 13 countries with a consultation length of 15 to 19.9 minutes and three countries with a consultation length of more than 20 minutes.

The authors raised concerns that patients in 18 countries, covering half the world’s population, spend five minutes or less with their GP. “Such a short consultation length is likely to adversely affect patient care and the workload and stress of the consulting physician,” they wrote. “A lack of time in the consultation is a key constraint to delivering expert generalist care.”

They added: “Policy makers can compare their country with others to consider both what a desirable and mean consultation length should be, and also how administrative requirements can greatly influence how scarce time is spent when patients consult physicians.”

Dr Richard Vautrey, chair of the British Medical Association’s GP committee, said: “GPs are working harder than ever before to deliver more appointments to patients and find new ways of providing care more efficiently. However, we have long argued that the standard 10-minute consultation is often inadequate for many patients, especially for the increasing number of older people with complex and multiple conditions.

Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, chair of the Royal College of GPs, said: “The time GPs have to spend with our patients is precious, and the more time we are able to spend with them, the better patient-centred care we are able to provide – so it’s concerning to see that every UK study included in this research shows that we are spending less than 10 minutes on average with our patients during their consultation.”

“Offering longer appointments means offering fewer appointments, and our latest analysis of the independent GP Patient Survey found patients will already be waiting a week or more for an appointment with a GP or practice nurse on 100m occasions by 2020.”

PA