Work limit

Work Limit Winter 2024/25

If you are unwell and feel you must be seen today: please contact us before 11am

GP Work Limit, Winter 2024/25 - Frequently Asked Questions

To keep our workload safe & sustainable as we head into the busy winter period, and after much consideration, we have taken this step: to switch up the number of routine appointments we provide to vulnerable and complex patients for their routine and proactive care.

With our limited funding, we can achieve this only by switching down the workload of our "same day service", by having a daily work limit.

What does a “Work Limit” mean?

Once we reach the Work Limit for that morning, or for that afternoon, some patients with acute issues may be directed to other services or asked to contact us another day if it is appropriate. [Before, all patients who contacted us with issues that we consider "acute", would get a same day response.]

What will the Work Limit be?

The Work Limit will vary according to incoming demands (forms) on that day, and our capacity to deal with them.

What will stay the same?

Our Appointment Hub team will continue to read all incoming online forms and our patient Support Team will continue to answer all incoming phone calls. We will not "switch off" online forms. We will continue to book routine GP appointments ahead. This is so we can signpost patients appropriately, and so that we can continue to provide advice and care in situations which may be critical or for patients who need continuity of care.

If I am unwell, what do I do?

You should contact us as normal. If you are unwell and may be helped by an alternate service, then our care navigators will signpost you, mpst likley to NHS 111. You can also use the NHS 111 symptom finder at https://111.nhs.uk/ or call 111. You may also find the Health A-Z on the NHS website helpful: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/  

If you are unwell and feel you want care today: please contact us before 11am

I would like a routine GP appointment

Please contact us as usual. Via the online form if possible, or if not then call or visit us. We will continue to book routine GP appointments ahead, there is no change to this. In a routine appointment, the doctor has more time to hear your full story. We encourage patients to book routine GP appointments, rather than "on the day" - if you live with a long term health condition then routine appointments are the better way to provide the care you will benefit from.   

What does vulnerable and complex mean?

This means people with:

  • a worsening of a known condition
  • living with multiple long term conditions
  • complex care needs
  • receiving palliative care
  • active suicidal ideation
  • babies & children age up to 12 where appropriate.

We are prioritising care for these groups by introducing the Work Limit. The Work Limit will enable us to provide them more routine appointments.

 If you are unwell and feel you must be seen today: please contact us before 11am

Background on Collective Action at St Martin's Practice

General Practice is under resourced. More patients want appointments than we can supply. In a vote organised by the BMA British Medical Association earlier in the year, English GPs voted overwhelmingly in favour of taking collective action. The BMA is encouraging practices to choose from a list of ten actions: practices can choose to implement as few or as many as they think appropriate. The actions have one thing in common: they all involve General Practice declining to carry out work which it is not funded to do ie they are not part of General Practice's NHS contract. For many years, GP has "picked up" such work. At St Martins, in common with many other practices nationally, we have already implemented some changes.

Our work limit is part of collective action. The BMA advise that the safe number of appointments per doctor per day is around 25-28.