Analysis of the bureaucratic unsolicited mountainous paper heap (BUMPH) that general practitioners received in 1994

BMJ 1995;311:1705-1706 (23 December)

DOING THE ROUNDS

Analysis of the bureaucratic unsolicited mountainous paper heap (BUMPH) that general practitioners received in 1994

Damian Kenny, general practitioner ^a

^a Westgate Surgery, 40 Parsonage Street, Dursley, Gloucestershire GL11 4AA

Abstract

Objectives: To record and analyse the bureaucratic unsolicited mountainous paper heap (BUMPH) received by general practitioners;to make some suggestions for coping with the ensuing workload.
Design: Daily record of all BUMPH landing on the desk of a generalpractitioner in one year.
Setting: Mixed practice with one full time and two job sharingprincipals.
Results: 5100 pages of BUMPH arrived during the year. The most prolific source of origin was health authorities (1549 pages).Fridays, Mondays, and the day after a holiday were the daysBUMPH was most frequently seen.
Conclusions: BUMPH is a major source of workload. One way ofavoiding it is not to work on the day after a day off.