Editing General practice (section)

====Consultations====
According to the [[Local Government Association]] 57 million GP consultations in England in 2015 were for minor conditions and illnesses, 5.2 million of them for blocked noses.<ref>{{cite news|title=Millions of 'unnecessary' GP visits are for coughs and colds, says LGA|url=http://www.thecommissioningreview.com/article/millions-unnecessary-gp-visits-are-coughs-and-colds-says-lga|access-date=15 December 2016|publisher=Commissioning Review|date=7 November 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220163916/http://www.thecommissioningreview.com/article/millions-unnecessary-gp-visits-are-coughs-and-colds-says-lga|archive-date=2016-12-20|url-status=dead}}</ref>   According to the [[King's Fund]] between 2014 and 2017 the number of telephone and face-to-face contacts between patients and GPs rose by 7.5% although GP numbers have stagnated.<ref>{{cite news|title=GP contacts with patients up 7.5% in two years|url=http://www.gponline.com/gp-contacts-patients-75-two-years/article/1435259|access-date=6 July 2017|publisher=GP Online|date=1 June 2017}}</ref> The mean consultation length in the UK has increased steadily over time from around 5 minutes in the 1950s to around 9·22 minutes in 2013–2014.<ref name="Irving et al 2017">{{cite journal |doi=10.1136/bmjopen-2017-017902 |pmid=29118053 |pmc=5695512 |title=International variations in primary care physician consultation time: A systematic review of 67 countries |journal=BMJ Open |volume=7 |issue=10 |pages=e017902 |year=2017 |last1=Irving |first1=Greg |last2=Neves |first2=Ana Luisa |last3=Dambha-Miller |first3=Hajira |last4=Oishi |first4=Ai |last5=Tagashira |first5=Hiroko |last6=Verho |first6=Anistasiya |last7=Holden |first7=John }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(16)00620-6 |pmid=27059888 |pmc=4899422 |title=Clinical workload in UK primary care: A retrospective analysis of 100 million consultations in England, 2007–14 |journal=The Lancet |volume=387 |issue=10035 |pages=2323–2330 |year=2016 |last1=Hobbs |first1=F D Richard |last2=Bankhead |first2=Clare |last3=Mukhtar |first3=Toqir |last4=Stevens |first4=Sarah |last5=Perera-Salazar |first5=Rafael |last6=Holt |first6=Tim |last7=Salisbury |first7=Chris }}</ref> This is shorter than the mean consultation length in a number of other developed countries around the world.<ref name="Irving et al 2017"/>

The proportion of patients in England waiting longer than seven days to see a GP rose from 12.8% in 2012 to 20% in 2017.<ref>{{cite news|title=More patients waiting longer than a week for GP appointments|url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/jul/06/more-patients-waiting-longer-than-a-week-for-gp-appointments|access-date=7 July 2017|publisher=Guardian|date=6 July 2017}}</ref> There were 307 million GP appointments, about a million each working day, with more on Mondays, in the year from November 2017. 40% got a same-day appointment. 2.8 million patients, 10.3%, in October 2018, compared to 9.4% in November 2017, did not see the doctor until at least 21 days after they had booked their appointment, and 1.4 million waited for more than 28 days. More than a million people each month failed to turn up for their appointment.<ref>{{cite news |title=One in 10 patients waiting three weeks to see GP, figures reveal |url=https://www.itv.com/news/2018-12-07/one-in-10-patients-waiting-three-weeks-to-see-gp-figures-reveal/ |access-date=10 December 2018 |publisher=ITV |date=7 December 2018}}</ref>

Commercial providers are rare in the UK but a private GP service was established at Poole Road Medical Centre in Bournemouth in 2017 where patients can pay to skip waiting lists to see a doctor.<ref>{{cite news|title=NHS GP practice sets up a private service - by paying up to £145 to jump the queue|url=http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/health/15071421.NHS_GP_practice_sets_up_a_private_service___by_paying_up_to___145_to_jump_the_queue/|access-date=14 July 2017|publisher=Southern Daily Echo|date=6 February 2017}}</ref>

GP at Hand, an online service using [[Babylon Health]]'s app, was launched in November 2017 by the Lillie Road Health Centre, a conventional GP practice in west London.  It recruited 7000 new patients in its first month, of which 89.6% were between 20 and 45 years old. The service was widely criticised by GPs for cherry picking. Patients with long term medical conditions or who might need home visits were actively discouraged from joining the service. [[Richard Vautrey]] warned that it risked 'undermining the quality and continuity of care and further fragmenting the service provided to the public'.<ref>{{cite news|title=Cherry picking fears confirmed as 7,000 new patients join GP at Hand|url=https://www.gponline.com/cherry-picking-fears-confirmed-7000-new-patients-join-gp-hand/article/1453102|access-date=25 December 2017|publisher=GP Online|date=18 December 2017}}</ref>

The [[COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom]] led to a sudden move to remote working.  In March 2020 the proportion of telephone appointments increased by over 600%.<ref>{{cite news |title=Official data demonstrates rapid rise of remote GP consultations |url=https://www.hsj.co.uk/coronavirus/official-data-demonstrates-rapid-rise-of-remote-gp-consultations/7027540.article |access-date=8 June 2020 |publisher=Health Service Journal |date=30 April 2020}}</ref>