According to the Local Government Association 57 million GP consultations in England in 2015 were for minor conditions and illnesses, 5.2 million of them for blocked noses. According to the King's Fund between 2014 and 2017 the number of telephone and face-to-face contacts between patients and GPs rose by 7.5% although GP numbers have stagnated. The mean consultation length in the UK has increased steadily over time from around 5 minutes in the 1950s to around 9·22 minutes in 2013–2014. This is shorter than the mean consultation length in a number of other developed countries around the world.