Slow GPs don’t ‘spend’ time with patients.They invest it. Here’s why..

Too often healthcare works like this:

Problem > Quick fix > Move on.

Infection > antibiotics.

Sore knee > X-ray and painkillers.

Diabetes > metformin.

10 minutes. Done.

But have we really made a difference?

When you look deeper, the real problem often isn’t what walked through the door.

That infection? The real issue was an over pressured workplace forcing them to be 110% everyday with no time to be unwell. Signposting to occupational health is the real investment.

That sore knee? Depression and family chaos leading to weight gain were the root. Psychosocial support creates the lasting change.

New diabetes? What the patient truly wanted wasn’t a prescription but a path to move, eat, sleep and live with purpose, and inspire others too.

Medicine focused only on problems keeps us stuck in an endless cycle of demand.

Because we rarely treat the root cause.

Most patients barely have the opportunity to talk about it.

Some practices even put signs on the wall, “One problem per appointment.” to be more ‘efficient’.

I ignore it. And I tell my patients to as well.

Because I don’t treat problems.

I invest in people.

And providing care for specific complaints isn’t a final step.

It’s part of the trust building process.

Part of removing physical, psychological and social barriers to move someone up a spectrum of performance, towards flourishing in life.

We need to understand as a medical community that people aren’t just a collection of problems.

They’re humans.

Humans who crave meaning, connection, and hope.

Humans who want to grow and inspire others.

But they rarely encounter a health service that actively encourages this.

This is why I don’t “spend” time.

I invest it.

Sometimes that means educating, activating and motivating.

Other times it means just being kind, planting seeds and offering follow up.

Because the more humans we invest in, the more they become the masters of their own health, and then inspire others.

Within their families, workplaces, communities.

And when enough people feel invested in, not ‘treated’, that’s when prevention becomes the norm.

That’s the tipping point.

Not because it is written into a 10 year plan.

But because it is simply the way things are.

So colleagues and system designers.

Don’t ‘spend’ time.

Invest it.

And see the rewards pay out 10-fold.

What do you think?

Have you felt invested in by your GP?