Notes for a profession in difficulty

Abstract

IS IT ME, OR IS IT GENERAL PRACTICE?As academic clinical fellows (ACFs) in general practices across London we are stakeholders in general practice at the outset of our careers. We recently discussed our concerns about the future of general practice and our futures in the speciality at our regional teaching session. Here is a summary of what we discussed:• Some GPs have up to 70 patient contacts per day. On average, GPs deliver 50% more than the British Medical Association's (BMA's) safe limit of 25 patient contacts per day.• A substantial proportion of appointments last over 10 minutes. In some months, around 20% of appointments delivered lasted more than 20 minutes.