The majority of GPs spend up to a quarter of their time seeing patients with minor medical issues who don't need to be seen by a doctor, a survey has suggested.

Almost half of doctors also felt that they spent significant amounts of time treating patients who did not look after themselves, the research by insurance provider Aviva showed.

And nearly one in four of the 200 GPs polled said they spent just one quarter of their time dealing with patients who actually needed their expertise.

The findings followed warnings that moves by some PCTs to decommission minor ailments services would cause yet more patients to visit their GPs for minor conditions.

C+D's decommissioning investigation revealed that 25 PCTs had cut or considered cutting community pharmacy services in the six months to March 2011, with minor ailments schemes suffering the most cutbacks.

"At a time when we are trying to get more efficient use of healthcare resources, it seems nonsensical to be driving patients to GPs," said PSNC head of NHS services, Alastair Buxton.

But pharmacists needed to do more to ensure doctors and patients were aware of how pharmacy could help patients, said Ajit Malhi, head of marketing services at AAH.

"It's up to us to ensure that our patients are aware of what lies behind the pharmacy door and for us to ensure that GPs fully understand how pharmacy can help as we move into a new commissioning era," he said.

"Pharmacists are highly trained to issue advice, recommend treatment or refer to a GP where necessary; we act as a filter that can keep GP waiting times to a minimum," he added.

Find out about service decommissioning in your area on C+D's interactive map.