How long would it take GPs to enact all of the guideline recommendations that they might be expected too? Far more GP hours than exist in any healthcare system, but as medicine has turned its attention to primary prevention, and expanded the populations whose health we seek to improve, those guidelines are taking up more and more time.

A recent analysis in The BMJ has proposed the concept of “Time Needed to Treat” and implores guideline makers to take account consultation time as a precious, finite, resource when thinking about their recommendations.

In this episode of Deep Breath In, we’re joined by Minna Johansson, family doctor and director Global Center for Sustainable Healthcare, who co-authored that analysis to talk about how the concept has gone down, and what it might mean for rethinking what primary care is supposed to do.

Reading list:

Guidelines should consider clinicians’ time needed to treat