• H R H Patel, C N Luxman, T S Bailey, J D M Brunning, D Zemmel, L K Morrell, M S Nathan, and R A Miller.
• Department of Urology and Minimal Access Surgery, Whittington Hospital NHS Trust, Highgate Hill, London N19 5NF, UK.
• J R Soc Med. 2002 Dec 1; 95 (12): 604-5.

AbstractIn outpatient clinics, consultation times are often eroded by extraneous activities. We measured the components of each outpatient episode in 167 patients attending a general urology follow-up clinic. 41% of time in the clinic was spent away from the patient-administration 17%, disturbances 15%, finding results 9%. The inefficiencies had changed little since a study in the same setting thirteen years earlier. Since then, parallel nurse-practitioner-run clinics have been introduced in the hope of giving consultants longer with the patient; however, time with each patient is now 4.8 min compared with a previous 7.6 min. The most easily addressed inefficiencies are those relating to missing information, such as radiology reports.

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