Getting the most out of your GP appointment

‘Why don’t you have time to discuss all my problems?!’ is one of the most common questions I get asked along with ‘why can’t I speak to you about more than one problem?!’ This is subsequently often followed with ‘I never get enough time with you’.

Now if it were up to me, I’d happily sit with my patients for 20-30 minutes discussing multiple problems but this a luxury that GPs don’t have. The average GP appointment lasts 10 minutes, however, in reality they are more like 6-8 minutes of actual consultation since the clock starts from the patient being called from reception and also includes the time for documenting, requesting investigations, completing referrals where needed, and also the patient putting their coat on to leave. In those 6-8 minutes, we have to get the history of the complaint, ask our specific questions, examine, explain the potential diagnosis, explain the potential investigations and management, all whilst ensuring the patient understands what has taken place and is expected of them. Is it therefore really a surprise that doctors rarely run-on time? To highlight the time constraints further, if I run on average 2-3 minutes late per patient, by the time I see my last patient, I could be running 40 minutes late!

Majority of my patients are now fully understanding of the constraints and follow my 5 simple steps to ensure that they benefit from their limited time with me. This has been adapted since changing to telephone consultations, however, we are slowly moving back to our face-to-face clinics.

Reference:

1. https://www.bmj.com/content/365/bmj.l2389#ref-1

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