This Country Has the Shortest Doctor Consultations in the Developed World

Think your physician doesn’t give you enough time? Consider what it’s like in the U.K., where an average consultation with a general practitioner lasts less than 10 minutes.

That’s the shortest consultation time in the entire developed world, according to the BBC. Doctors say the country’s general practitioners are so overworked and underresourced that people aren’t getting the care they need.

The BBC cited data produced by U.K. nonprofit the Health Foundation, sourced from 11 countries including the U.S., Germany, France and Australia. It indicated that the time spent with a physician in the U.K. is significantly shorter than in other countries, finding that 92% of consultations in the U.K. took 15 minutes or less, compared with 27% of consultations elsewhere.

Dr. Helen Stokes-Lampard, president of the Royal College of General Practitioners, told the BBC that this was a “a crazy situation.” Other medical professionals blamed the predicament on an overworked public-health system, whereby doctors and nurses sometimes work long shifts with no break, all the while having to rush through meetings with patients.

“It is not safe,” Dr. Olivia Hum, a general practitioner since 2007, told the BBC. “The brain can’t make these decisions properly in less than 10 minutes.”

[BBC]