Family practitioners (GPs) working for the NHS in UK, normally allocate 10 minutes for each patient. Work load for most doctors has increased considerably in the recent past. Some of them see as many as 60 patients in a day. With increasing number of patients with complex and chronic illnesses and with the limited time available they predict that some will miss serious illness or cancer in a patient. Doctors now feel that the slots are not long enough for seeing patients with complex illnesses.

The BMA has also warned that the safety of patients is being put at risk by exhausted consultants who could not catch up on sleep after nights on call.