GP e-records show rise in patient visits

Computer records from GP systems have shown that patients are using their GP practices more for help when they are unwell than was the case a decade ago.

Using electronic records to identify patient visit numbers, the Information Centre for health and social care have estimated that the number of consultations at family practices in England has risen from 220.1m in 1995 to 289.8m in 2006.

In its report, ‘Trends in Consultation Rates in General Practice’, the IC says that the records they have analyzed show patients in England are now visiting their family practice more frequently, with the average person attending their practice 5.3 times a year in 2006, compared to 3.9 consultations during 1995.

The report also shows that GPs are changing the way they consult with patients. While the number of GP consultations in surgery rooms has remained fairly constant, the number of telephone consultations has trebled from 3% to 10%.Home visits have fallen though, dropping from 9% to 3% of the total.

Nurses appear to be seeing more patients, with a higher proportion of all consultations being undertaken by them, up from one in five consultations in 1995 to one in three now.

The IC’s acting chief executive Tim Straughan said: “As patient consultations increase, it shows practices are adapting the way they deliver care with nurses carrying out an increasing proportion of care. GPs, however, while seeing a smaller proportion of patients, are now able to spend longer with those they do see.”

A separate survey, also by the IC, the 2006/07 UK General Practice Workload Survey, provides an overview of the workload and skill-mix of general practices across the UK and is the first to be done under the new contract.

It shows the extent that IT is used in the surgery, especially obvious with the non-clinical staff. The survey found they spent 64% of their time arranging referrals, with use of ‘Choose and Book’ accounting for around a third of the time spent.

Non-clinical practice staff reported spending another third of their time on data input and a further third on practice administration.

The workload survey found that GPs now spend almost 40 per cent longer with each patient they see for a consultation than they did in 1992/3. Consultation times have increased from 8.4 minutes in 1992/3 to 11.7 minutes in 2006/07.

The report showed full-time GP partners continued to work on average 44.4 hours per week, similar to the most comparable figure from 1992/93. The average number of hours worked by all full and part-time GP partners in 2006/07 was 38.2 hours. Practice nurses worked an average of 22.8 hours per week and practice staff in general worked an average 26.3 hours a week

Straughan added: “Taken together, the reports provide a valuable insight into the changing face of family practice in this country. With the average patient attending for care and treatment more than five times a year, they show that family practices remain at the heart of healthcare provision.”

Practice manager Sandy Gower, of Bennetts End Surgery, Hemel Hempstead, said: “These are powerful findings which reflect many of the complex changes taking place in family practice. They show that what we are experiencing at our own practice with more patient consultations, growing staff numbers, the development of new skill mixes are in keeping with what is happening up and down the country.

“For me, the findings validate our approach which has been to invest heavily in nurses, as well as increasing investment in GPs, to enable GPs to focus more time delivering care to patients with the most serious, complex and often chronic conditions."

Links

General Practice Workload Survey

QRESEARCH report on trends in consultation rates in General Practice 1995 – 2006