A PAPER THAT CHANGED MY PRACTICE

Effective and efficient consulting arrangements?

General practitioners whose educational experiences have embraced Michael Balint's work and the Leeuwenhorst “physical, emotional, and social” description of our job tend to favour longer consultations and to value the time spent with those patients wishing to unravel psychological problems. This results in surgeries which run and finish late, frustrated patients who endure longer waiting times, and embattled receptionists who undergo difficult mornings.

The work of John Howie and his colleagues shows the possibility of rearranging consulting time so that instead …