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Up to 27 per cent of GP appointments could be avoided with more coordinated working between GPs and hospitals, wider use of other primary care practitioners and better use of technology, a new report has suggested.

The 'Making Time In General Practice' study by NHS Alliance and the Primary Care Foundation revealed that a significant amount of GP time is taken up with rearranging hospital appointments, and chasing up test results from local hospitals.

The research also estimated that one in six patients in the study could potentially have been seen by another practitioner within the wider primary care team, such as a clinical pharmacist, practice nurse or physician assistant, or that the patient could have been supported to meet their own healthcare needs.

The report was commissioned as part of NHS England's ongoing work to implement the NHS Five Year Forward View and follows the launch of a £15m scheme to fund, recruit and employ clinical pharmacists in GP surgeries.

In order to reduce bureaucracy in general practice and free up GP time, the report makes a series of recommendations, including allowing patients to rebook hospital appointments if they are unable to attend them; employing a wider range of staff within the practice team; streamlining communication between care providers and funding for GP federations to build practical social prescribing projects with the wider community.

Dr Jonathan Serjeant, GP, co-director and co-founder of Brighton and Hove Integrated Care Service and National lead for NHS Alliance's Accelerate programme, which provides practical support to GP federations and emerging models of primary care, said: "If applied quickly, the recommendations set out in this report, particularly those around extending the GP team to incorporate other health professionals, will help reduce the current levels of bureaucracy GPs face on a daily basis.

"The end result is that GP time is freed up, and people have access to all their information whenever they need it.€