Your Work Counts
From Monday 20 November 2023 – Sunday 3 December 2023 the College’s 'Your Work Counts' project team collected data from over 400 members.
The aim of the project is to identify how much time is being spent on key tasks and addressing the unrecognised and often unremunerated work that GPs put into caring for people throughout the course of their lives.
The data will help the College to develop evidence-based guidelines around:
- safe and sustainable patient loads
- what a fair and reasonable 40-hour week looks like
- ratios for how many GPs per 100,000 patients each region and the country needs.
We will be running another diary study in the coming months and encourage as many members as possible to take part - whether you completed the last diary study or not.
Results
Media release: GPs working for free to complete crucial patient follow-up, study shows
“Until now, most discussions about the way we work have focused only on the patient-facing aspect. The College wants to highlight the amount of work that is actually required to look after a primary care patient load as a specialist GP or rural hospital doctor,” says College Medical Director Dr Luke Bradford.
Time spent on key tasks
Contact time (patient consultations) - 56.4%
Non-contact clinical time - 30.8%
Training and education - 6.4%
Clinical governance and practice improvement - 2.6%
Management (running the practice) - 3.3%
Other - 0.5%
Not surprisingly, clinical contact time with patients took up the most time over the two-week period. Non-contact clinical time, which consists of all the paperwork, emails and administrative tasks generated from patient consultations came in second at 30.8% of respondents’ time.
It is this non-contact clinical work that is being completed in the evenings and weekends and is often the work that is not remunerated. However, it is a core part of our role and it needs to be done.
Hours worked
- 57 respondents (14%) worked all 14 days in the study
- 64 respondents (15%) worked all four weekend days
- 76 respondents (18%) worked at least one 50+ hour week
- 34 respondents (8%) worked 50+ hours each week
- 22 respondents (5%) worked at least one 60+ hour week
- 7 respondents (2%) worked 60+ hours each week
“The breadth and complexity of care we provide is unlike any other medical specialty. We’re working longer hours to try and plug the gaps of the workforce shortages because we want to be available to patients when they need us. But these extra hours, paired with all the follow-up that comes with it is not a long-term solution,” says College President Dr Samantha Murton.
The College will be running another diary study which will be easier for members to take part in during a period that suits them. This will allow us to build on this data and further support the College’s advocacy efforts to have the profession valued appropriately for the work that you do and the complexity of the care you provide.
Media coverage
The AM Show - Dr Luke Bradford
RNZ's Morning Report - Dr Luke Bradford
Newstalk ZB with Mike Hosking - Dr Samantha Murton
Seven Sharp - Dr Samantha Murton
Newshub News at 6pm - Dr Samantha Murton
Does a GPs time count? - Dr Luke Bradford's column in NZ Doctor
First diary study confirms sheer volume of non-patient time workload | NZ Doctor
Demographics
Gender
- 312 (75%) women
- 102 (25%) men
- 1 gender diverse
- 2 preferred not to say
Ethnicity
- 351 (84%) European
- 16 (4%) Māori
- 5 (1%) Pasifika
- 57 (14%) Asian
- 3 (neg) MELAA
Location
- 332 (79%) Urban
- 37 (9%) Not clearly urban or rural
- 48 (12%) Rural
The five 'task types' for recording data that we asked members to use
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Consultations
Forms of care you provide to your patients (appointments, check-ups, minor procedures etc) through any channel (phone, video, portal etc), in any setting (in practice, clinics, urgent care etc), and in any format (one-on-ones, groups, clinics etc).
View our consultations sheet for more examples.
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Non-contact clinical time
Tasks that relate to care but aren't don't while in contact with your patients. This is a broad category which includes in-box management but also extends to liaising with other staff, interactions with the hospital system and making referrals, letters and reports.
View our non-contact clinical timesheet for more examples.
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Training and education
The training you provide to others, the educational tasks you do for yourself, and the less formal peer and relationship activities that strengthen your networks.
View our training and education sheet for more examples.
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Clinical governance and practice improvement
Work required to maintain patient safety and outcomes at a system level, run projects to address specific areas of community risk, and maintain relationships with the wider health sector.
View our clinical governance and practice improvement sheet for more examples.
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Running the organisation
Things that have to be done to support the organisation from HR and employment issues, to IT and procurement, to financial management and administration.
View our running the organisation sheet for more examples.
Questions
If you've got questions or would like more information, please email Tom.Broadhead@rnzcgp.org.nz and we'll be happy to help.
You can also watch this webinar from 15 November where medical director Dr Luke Bradford and Tom Broadhead answer questions from members, and explain more about why we're doing this project.