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GPs have ‘chosen’ 10-minute consultations, claims NHS England lead

Practices are continuing to work in 10-minute appointment slots when they should be varying appointment length, NHS England’s head of general practice development has said.

Dr Robert Varnam also told delegates at the RCGP’s Annual Conference last week that the policy of practices restricting patients to one condition per consultation is ‘unethical’. 

He was speaking after RCGP chair Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard appealed for GPs to have time to give the holistic care that patients increasingly need in her opening speech of the conference in Liverpool

Dr Varnam said: ‘I think we have chosen to work in 10-minute appointment slots when some people could be dealt with in five, and others couldn’t be dealt with in under 20.’

He likened these restrictions to the policy of practices asking patients not to bring multiple conditions to discuss at their appointment – which has been criticised by commissioners and in the national media. 

Dr Varnam added: ‘I just think it’s bad medicine to force someone to say “no you can only talk about one”. I think it’s unethical, I think it’s uncaring, and I think it’s counter-productive.

‘Because while it’s understandable to do that under pressure – “because I’m protecting myself” – that person goes back to reception, books another appointment and you start from scratch again.’

But GP leaders have said Dr Varnam’s comments were ‘unhelpful’ as practices are best placed to know how to meet their patients’ needs, as well as being contractually entitled to do so.

Doncaster LMC medical secretary Dr Dean Eggitt accepted there were pros and cons to the 10-minute model, but fundamentally GPs were only able to give the service they were funded for.

He told Pulse: ‘What’s more unethical is if we turn a load of sick people away with nowhere else to go.

‘We’re stuck in this situation where we either give a substandard consultation in 10 minutes, or a brilliant consultation – taking however long the patient needs – and losing the opportunity cost of helping more people.’

The RCGP has campaigned for half-hour appointments to be the norm, while Professor Stokes-Lampard has repeatedly said NHS England’s pledged investment and workforce commitments must be delivered so that appointments can be longer and access improved.

GP leaders negotiating a new Scottish GP contract have said they expect it to be the end of restrictive 10-minute consultations.