Patients at risk from GP workload, says Shropshire doctor

Dr Mary McCarthy, a BMA spokeswoman and a GP at Belvidere Medical Practice in Shrewsbury, suggested that animals got better care than humans, when it came to the amount of time allocated to consultations.

Doctors said they were often forced to see 40 or 50 patients a day, despite international guidelines suggesting a safe limit of around half that.

The British Medical Association (BMA) is calling for limits to be set on the number of patients seen per day, with plans for a vote on industrial action if numbers are not capped.

Highlighting US research among vets which suggested that they should not see more than 20 clients a day, Dr McCarthy said: "I wrote a paper for the British Journal of General Practice on my European research indicating that those countries that think general practice is sustainable have 25 patient contacts a day or fewer.

"In this country GPs often see 40 to 50 patients a day.

"Compare this to dentists who see 20 to 25 patients a day, vets see 20 clients a day and solicitors see five to six clients each day.

"GPs should reduce patient contacts to a level that is clinically safe for their patients and safe for them.

"We should stop working the way we do at the moment, for the patients' clinical safety and for our sanity."

According to The Daily Telegraph, other medics have said patients are better off seeing GPs in the morning than in the afternoon because doctors can suffer from "decision fatigue" where the quality of decision-making degrades as the day goes on.

Rachel Ali, a GP from Devon, told a conference: "I know that I would much rather be one of my first five patient contacts of the day than my last five."

Dr Chaand Nagpaul, chairman of the BMA's GP committee, told the newspaper: "This is not just about the number of appointments being seen every day, but about the intensity of that workload, and the number of patients with complex and multiple conditions.

"When GPs are trying to listen and care while juggling huge numbers of patients, they want to practise safely and not to make a mistake, but you are trying to do the impossible."

In April the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) urged members to take regular breaks over fears that tired doctors could pose a threat to patient safety.

The RCGP sent a poster campaign to every practice in the country, making the case that "a rested GP is a safer GP" as some now see 40 to 60 patients a day.