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GP appointments last less than five minutes for half the world’s population

BMJ 2017; 359 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.j5172 (Published 08 November 2017) Cite this as: BMJ 2017;359:j5172
  1. Gareth Iacobucci
  1. The BMJ

Primary care consultations last less than five minutes for half of the world’s population, a large international analysis has found.

The research,1 published in BMJ Open, reveals wide variation in the average consultation length across the globe, with examples ranging from just 48 seconds in Bangladesh to 22.5 minutes in Sweden.

Researchers from a range of academic institutions reviewed the data on consultation length from 178 relevant studies covering 67 countries and more than 28.5 million consultations.

The analysis included peer reviewed research and “grey literature”—defined as research …

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