One of the common complaints you hear about GP surgeries is that they’re very quiet when you visit and the GPs can’t be doing very much work as their place is so quiet. I thought I would try to explain how GPs are now so busy that their practice premises look quieter than before.

Let’s start with prescriptions which patients used to order by phone and then collect. An average practice will now be issuing up to 1000 prescriptions a day and no phone system can keep up with this. Most prescriptions are ordered by email and collected in bulk by the pharmacist thus reducing football in the GP premises and freeing up staff time and access by telephone. Patients complain that they can’t get appointments since Covid and yet GP Magazine tells us that data shows a 50% increase in GP appointments since 2019. There are now so many GP appointments provided that would be impossible to see them all face-to-face so many consultations take place on the phone which people appreciate as it’s quicker and convenient. It does however make the practice look quieter.

I asked a GP recently how many days she worked as everyone seems to be cutting their hours. I work three days a week she said but I’m in five days working as it takes the other two days to clear up all the paperwork involved with three days of consultations. So working for five days but paid for three!

I was on the phone to another Belfast GP recently who was the only GP in the practice for 5000 patients as they can’t find locums to help. What’s first on your list I asked- 106 lab reports to start out before I get near the prescriptions ,hospital letters ,phone calls and house calls she answered.

Dr Tom Black. Darren KIdd / presseye.com.

placeholder image — Dr Tom Black. Darren KIdd / presseye.com.

You will have noted that none of these tasks involves a patient coming into the GP practice so to a visiting person this young GP will look like they’re having a very quiet day. This young GP’s biggest concern was whether she would get home in time to get her children to bed not to mention their dinner and homework which her husband would have to do before that.

A GP day for me starts with multiple lab reports; some straightforward but some complex and time consuming. I then try to sort out some of the 400 prescriptions I’ll be responsible for each day and then I move onto my phone calls and I’ll try to clear the first 16 phone consultations before lunchtime in between seeing any patients that need to come in and see me. House calls are done at lunchtime and then it’s back to the multiple computer screens that I have to clear in the afternoon with further lists of lab results, prescriptions, phone calls and face-to-face consultations before moving onto the dreaded paperwork.

Hospital letters, insurance reports, social services requests, etc not to mention endless emails. It is now nearly impossible to find a GP to take on this burden as a Locum, salary GP or partner and it is very rare to meet a GP under 40 years of age because they just won’t tolerate this dreadful workload. I don’t blame them and they’re obviously smarter than I am.