How to speak to your GP to get the most out of your appointment

Stethescope and medical instruments in doctor's pocket

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Strong Women


How to speak to your GP to get the most out of your appointment

By Anna Bartter

Updated 2 years ago

5 min read

A GP explains how to maximise the time you have with your doctor to get the best out of your next appointment.


Hands up who’s ever felt frustrated at the end of a doctor’s appointment? It’s easy to empathise wholeheartedly with the stress that GPs are under and recognise that problems with the service are the result of underinvestment in the NHS, yet still feel thoroughly drained by the amount of time and energy it takes to see your doctor.

While the government states that all patients need to be seen by a GP within two weeks, the latest figures from the NHS show that almost 5 million patients are waiting longer than this each month. And the demands placed on GP services are undeniable: one GP told the BBC that the pressure is “dangerously close to a death spiral”, with doctors frequently seeing twice as many patients per day as is deemed safe. If you then leave the surgery feeling as though the conversation hasn’t been productive, it can be even more disheartening. 

It’s natural that we want to make the most of our time with our doctor. With this in mind, we asked a GP for her tips on how you can maximise your appointments and communicate your needs most effectively – and hopefully, leave your appointment feeling a little bit better.

Try to avoid self-diagnosis

female GP listening to a patient

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We’re all medical experts these days, thanks to Dr Google, and if you’ve never searched for your weird medical symptoms online, who even are you? But this approach often isn’t particularly helpful. 

“The GP consultation truly is an art form,” explains Dr Zoe Watson, GP and founder of wellbeing platform Wellgood Wellbeing. “It’s like building a jigsaw puzzle. You come to us with the jumbled puzzle pieces: your symptoms. We ask you a series of open and closed questions and we examine you, which helps us put some of the pieces together. 

“We then may order some tests, to help us make the jigsaw even clearer, and slowly we start to understand what is going on and how we can fix it.”

But arriving with an idea of what you think is going on, while it might seem helpful, isn’t usually necessary.

“What we really need from you, when you come to see us, is a list of symptoms,” says Dr Watson. “You’ll have a jumble of different symptoms you’ve noticed, but you don’t know how to fit them together.” When patients visit her with their “jumbled puzzle pieces” and a self-diagnosis, it makes the process more difficult, Dr Watson says.

doctor's desk-stethescope-prescription

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Be honest

The reciprocal doctor-patient relationship only works when there’s transparency and honesty. It sounds simple – but don’t lie or embellish your symptoms in order to get what you think you need.

“Problems arise when patients lie to us, and it does happen,” says Dr Watson. “It can be [due to] embarrassment or they may have certain investigations in mind that they want. The doctor-patient relationship is fundamentally based on trust, which goes both ways. You need to trust us: we have your best interests at heart in everything we do, but we also must be able to trust that what you are telling us about your symptoms is accurate.”

Write your concerns down, if that helps you

There’s something very cathartic about writing things down, and if you’re the type of person who loses their train of thought easily (and frankly, aren’t we all?), having a little prompt sheet in front of you can really help when speaking to a GP. 

“If you are someone who struggles under pressure or when put on the spot – and some people do get anxious about coming to the doctors – then write down some bullet points of the symptoms you’ve noticed that you’re worried about,” suggests Dr Watson. “That way, if you lose your train of thought, you have something to remind you to mention everything.”

woman making notes in notebook

Credit: Getty

Don’t be ashamed to admit what you’re really worried about

If you’re worried you might have cancer – say that. There’s no shame in naming your fears, and most of the time, your doctor will be able to reassure you. But if you don’t mention it, the chances are that it’ll still be niggling you when you’ve left the GP surgery.

“We know that patients will usually come to us worried about something in particular,” Dr Watson says. “If you come to us worried about headaches and don’t disclose, for example, that your best friend has just been diagnosed with a brain tumour and that’s what’s really on your mind, then we can’t relieve your concerns.”

Remember your time limit

It’s tempting to word-vomit all your medical concerns once you’re sitting in the doctor’s office, but it’s important to remember to keep to one issue.

“You only have 10 minutes (sometimes 15), and that really is only enough to deal with one problem fully,” says Dr Watson. 

“I know that’s frustrating if you have several things you want to talk about, but it simply isn’t possible to deal with more than one thing in a 10-minute appointment.

“When we do try and do this, we end up with not enough time to fully talk about each problem, so things can be missed and we may run over time – which then has an impact on the rest of our patients that day, who are all waiting to be seen.” If you have multiple issues to discuss, it’s usually a better idea to book multiple appointments. 

Don’t forget your GP is only human 

GPs don’t have a lot of time with each patient, and sometimes it may feel like you haven’t got everything out of your appointment that you wanted. But while the current NHS crisis is undeniably frustrating for patients, it’s important that we remember that doctors are human, too. Worryingly, new research by the Medical Protection Society (MPS) shows that 56% of UK doctors have experienced or witnessed situations involving verbal or physical abuse over the last year, with almost half (45%) blaming these incidents on patients’ frustration at having to wait a long time to be treated.

“You should always leave your GP appointment feeling like you have been listened to,” says Dr Watson. “But do remember that GPs are human beings. Our communication styles can vary, and we have bad days just as much as the next person.

“If you don’t feel that you’ve said everything you wanted to say, or don’t feel that your GP listened to and acted on your concerns, then you are always entitled to either seek a second opinion from a different GP – or indeed, to make a further appointment with the same GP and highlight your concerns again.”

Images: Getty


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