LESS THAN 5MINUTES TO TALK TO YOUR GP

NHS data reveals how overworked and stressed doctors are struggling to cope

- MARTIN BAGOT

GPS are spending less than five minutes with many patients, according to official figures.

Some 10 million appointments last month were conducted in 10 minutes or less, out of 27 million in England.

But the NHS, revealing for the first time how long patients get to discuss their ailments, admitted 4.6 million of these visits were logged as taking between one and five minutes.

Yet there are doubts as to how quickly appointments are "checked out" on the computers of family doctors for the experimental data - so the actual time spent with patients may be even less.

This news comes as a study shows four in five GPS are stressed, anxious or depressed amid huge NHS patient backlogs.