General Practitioners

(asked on 9th January 2017) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they consider that GPs are in breach of their terms of contract by preventing patients from raising more than one illness in an appointment.


Answered by
Lord O'Shaughnessy Portrait
Lord O'Shaughnessy
This question was answered on 23rd January 2017

There has been no national policy to limit general practitioner (GP) consultations to the discussion of one health concern per consultation.

The General Medical Services regulations require the contractor to provide services to their registered and temporary resident patients which include ‘management’ of those patients who are or believe themselves to be ill, terminally ill or suffering from chronic disease. Within the regulations, ‘management’ is defined as offering consultation and where appropriate physical examination for the purposes of identifying the need, if any, for treatment or further investigation and making available such treatment as is necessary and appropriate including the referral of the patient for other services. Such services must be provided at such times within core hours (8am – 6.30pm) as are appropriate to meet the reasonable needs of patients.

The length and type of consultation is not defined within the regulations, but what is required is that GP practices must specify in their practice leaflets the consultations available to patients, the opening hours of the practice and the method of obtaining services throughout core hours.

The Department does not have a central policy on what can be raised in appointments. It is for individual practices to assess the needs of their patients and how best to meet them; we would expect those practices to listen to and respond to any feedback from their patients.

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