Three in four UK GPs ‘too busy to talk to their patients in depth’

A friendly chat with your GP about your life, health and happiness was once a key part of the UK’s family doctor service.

But most GPs no longer have time to have pastoral conversations, because they are too busy dealing with the country’s rising tide of illness, research reveals.

Three out of four family doctors are now too time-pressed to talk to patients in depth about how they might stop smoking, lose weight or get more sleep, the Royal College of GPs has found.

Intense demands and 10-minute appointment slots mean they also miss opportunities to discuss taking more exercise or review their medications to see if they still need to be on them.

An RCGP survey of 2,316 GPs across the UK found that 75% had too little time to offer preventative healthcare, such as offering lifestyle advice and giving advice on vaccinations. The results have raised concern about the government’s drive for the NHS – especially GPs – to do more to prevent people getting ill in the first place. One health expert called them alarming.

The college’s president, Prof Victoria Tzortziou Brown, who is a GP in east London, said: “General practice is dealing with enormous demand, so in a busy consultation we inevitably have to prioritise the problems that most need our attention that day.

“We will always act on symptoms or findings that need investigation or treatment. What can be squeezed out is the time to step back and look more holistically at how we can help that patient stay well in the long term.

“That might mean having a proper conversation with someone who smokes. We will of course advise patients about stopping smoking. But in a busy consultation there may not be enough time to explore in depth whether they want to stop, what has made it difficult in the past, what concerns they have and what support or treatment might work best for them.

“It is often the depth of those conversations, rather than simply identifying a risk and giving brief advice, that requires time.”

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Source: The Guardian, 27 September 2026