GPs want more cuts in red tape to create more time for patient care, according to a major survey from the British Medical Association.
More than half of GPs – particularly those with unmanageable workloads – want a reduction in the size of the quality and outcomes framework (QOF). Cuts have already been made to these quality indicators.
Richard Vautrey, BMA GPs committee deputy chair said: ‘GPs struggling with unmanageable levels of workload want to reduce any unnecessary bureaucracy and box-ticking to a minimum.
“In consultations that are increasingly pressured for time, GPs want to focus primarily on the needs identified by the patient in front of them, not the prompts to gather more data for the computer.”
GPs who have been qualified for more than 20 years are more likely to feel QOF should be cut than their trainee colleagues. Also rural GPs, who are likely to have stable practice populations, were more likely than urban GPs to want a reduction in indicators.
