A Twitter campaign by DAUK, encouraging GPs to share their day at work, has revealed that some GPs have over 200 patient contacts per day. The Pulse report on the ‘Day in GP’ campaign states that GPs have recorded up to 225 patient contact in a day.
“DAUK Co-chair Dr Ellen Welch told Pulse that the organisation has been running its #GPCrisis campaign since early 2021 to try and raise awareness of the current issues in primary care.
She added that the ‘Day in GP’ was inspired by a tweet by Nottingham GP Dr Gandhi from the previous week, where he outlined his day’s work.
‘It’s similar to what we did last year and as GP is even tougher now than a year ago, we thought it would provide a wake-up call to politicians to have an idea of exactly what is going on in GP,’ Dr Welch said.”
“Dr Welch said that any solutions to tackle the workload crisis need to consider the ‘unseen work’ in general practice as well.
She said: ‘A GP may have a cap on the number of patients in their clinic, but then be expected to have double the number of patient contacts dealing with results, letters, and admin.
‘If this isn’t factored into workforce planning, then we will continue to see GPs becoming burnout and unwell.’
DAUK’s GP Lead Dr Lizzie Toberty added: ‘We need to be realistic about what can be dealt with when the demand is so high. As winter approaches we need to have systems in place to signpost minor problems such as fungal toenails elsewhere, or else we really will be overwhelmed.’ ”
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