GP leader warns that fast-food approach puts patients at risk

News Reporter

Saturday 16 March 2013

THE leader of Scotland's family doctors has warned general practice must resist a fast-food approach to patient care as he told delegates at their annual con-ference the workload on primary care providers was becoming unsustainable.

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Helen McArdle

Dr Alan McDevitt, chairman of the Scottish Local Medical Committees, told regional GP representatives they were "bogged down by bureaucracy" and time was being wasted during their 10-minute consultations because "before you even speak to the patient, you face a barrage of questions and reminders from your computer".

Speaking at the SLMC annual conference at the Beardmore Hotel in Clydebank, Dr McDevitt said: "There are those who think that general practice can be broken into a series of menus like a fast-food restaurant giving the patient a limited choice of options delivered exactly the same way. That's not the way to deliver complex personalised human care."He added: "It is clear the rising workload just isn't sustainable. I've seen the work piling up, but what I don't see are the resources to sustain this workload."Something's got to give and I do not want our patients to suffer because general practice has reached saturation point."We need more GPs, more practice staff, better facilities and increased funding to ensure we can do the thing we do best – make our patients' health better."The conference heard from GPs from around Scotland who said they were struggling to cope as duties once carried out in hospital were being transferred to GP surgeries, with one GP suggesting an end to patient home visits in an attempt to reduce their workload.Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing Alex Neil delivering the day's keynote speech, said he wanted to cut the number of targets for doctors. "I want to reduce targets where they're unnecessary or distorting clinical practice. How you run your GP practice is your business. My job is to say to you, 'In return for public money these are the outcomes we want'," he said.The conference heard the profession was facing a recruitment crisis, particularly in remote and rural areas, as less than a quarter of graduates were now expressing a preference to specialise in general practice. The problem would be exacerbated, said delegates, when the training period was extended in 2014.

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GP leader warns that fast-food approach puts patients at risk

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