Should GPs’ daily number of consultations be capped?

Yes—Laurence Buckman

If we admit that GPs become less safe the longer they work, we could harm the profession. However, the 10 minute consultation is too short for the amount of work required to meet patients’ needs. And the pressure to perform better and longer for more and more patients, with greater degrees of complexity, is now dangerous—for them and us. The time has come when the public has to be told that it is unsafe for them to be seen when the GP is not thinking optimally, and that tired GPs risk harming patients—and themselves through stress associated illness. I am not prepared to die for the NHS.

The first medical commandment is to do no harm. We must no longer squeeze what needs to be done for patients into 10 minutes. We must stop pretending that we can see potentially unlimited numbers of possibly sick people without respite. We must support the BMA’s recent call to limit the daily number of consultations.1