Independent Nurse: Top GP calls for expansion of nursing roles in primary care.

One of the UK's leading GPs has called for the expansion of practice nurse roles to enable GPs to offer longer consultations and commission 24-hour care for patients.

Speaking at an NHS Confederation conference in London last week, Royal College of GPs chair Professor Steve Field called for nurses to take on many of the tasks that GPs do to improve patient care and free up GP time.

'(GPs) need to have consultations with our patients lasting around 15-20 minutes. We should focus on the whole of the patient and provide continuity of care,' he said.

'What we are not are minor illness walk-in-centre people. When a GP sees a patient, that patient should become …