A push to ensure specialist GPs are taking on sustainable patient loads

More than 400 members of the College of GPs have taken in a two-week diary study, which has found non-contact clinical time takes up almost a third of their time.

It's different for hospital-based specialists, who have all paper and non-contact work incorporated into their clinical time.

Royal College of GPs President Samantha Murton says administration work needs to be calculated into rural and specialist GPs' workloads.

She says in a 40-hour week, only 22-and-a-half are in front of a patient - and the remaining follow-up work isn't factored in.