GPs find it it "impossible" not to make a mistake when they see large numbers of complex patients a day, medics have said.
The British Medical Association (BMA) said patient numbers per day should be capped.
According to The Daily Telegraph, 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.
Read more: Increased pressure on doctors could lead to more mistakes being made, says GP
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."
Read more: Short term fixes pledged for GP workload crisis
"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.
Read more: My despair at Scottish Labour's GP appointment pledge
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 40-60 patients a day.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here