Does you doctor listen to you, or spend more time looking at a screen?

: Typical Surgery – full of computers Wikipedia

DOES YOUR DOCTOR LOOK YOU IN THE EYE?

In a recent survey, Pulse Magazine (the doctors’ in-house mag.) found nearly half of GPs claim to be too busy to make eye-contact with their patients during consultations.

97 per cent complained that consultations had become more complicated and intense over the last five years. Among many problems, the survey reflected that only 55 per cent of any consultation was spent “speaking to patients” and “addressing their concerns” while a third was spent on paperwork and data input.

38 per cent felt they could not give patients enough eye-contact because they had to spend so much time entering information on to computers to meet Government targets. Much of the information that doctors must input relates to bonus payments for the performance-based aspect of their contract i.e. the dreaded QOFs.

So instead of making life easier for doctors and giving us more ‘quality time’ during appoinntments, the NHS wastes time by changing the rules so that GPs are now compensated for the different conditions they treat, rather than giving every practice an overall payment according to how many patients are on the books. Hence the amount of time GPs spend in-putting data onto screens so they can claim the maximum amount from the PCT, rather than observing us and answering our needs.

Vanessa Bourne, Head of Special Projects at the Patients Association says, “GPs are the gatekeepers to all other healthcare. Patients must be able to trust that an accurate diagnosis is being made. At the very least that means having a proper look at the patient”.

Worryingly, half of GPs also said that their Primary Care Trust (who pay for GP care) did not support them in “offering high-quality patient care” while a shocking 27 per cent said PCTs were “actively obstructive”. One wonders if they worry more that forms are filled in, rather than patients are getting proper care.

Average consultation lasts 11 minutes – although GPs say they need around 14 minutes to give us adequate time. However, under a new payment contract introduced in 2003 (when QOFs reared their ugly head), doctors are working seven hours less per week. The harshest critics have said that if doctors worked longer, they could spend more time giving personal care.

“If PCTs are to blame for the wrong priorities in a consultation, then patients risk being shortchanged twice over – once by their GP and again by the PCT. For over a quarter of GPs to feel that their PCT is being “actively obstructive” tells patients that urgent action is needed,” according to the Patients’ Association’s latest newsletter.

To see the original Pulse Magazine article and download the full survey results, please visit:
http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=23&storycode=4124116&c=2

To see more about the Patients’ Association, or to sign up for their excellent newsletter, http://www.patients-association.org.uk/Join-Us.

Full membership of the Patients’ Association is only £10 a year – well worth it for what they do for us, highlighting where the NHS can improve. The Pulse article is highlighted in their latest newsletter. http://patients-association.org.uk/Membership-Subscription.