5 ways to get more out of your GP appointments
- Make sure you’re with the right clinician
To ensure we book an appointment with the right clinician, we will ask you to tell us about your symptoms. If you speak with a receptionist they will have the skills and knowledge to take information about your health with sensitivity and respect. All the information you share is important as different doctors, nurses and health care assistants (HCAs) in the practice undertake different types of work or specialise in different areas. Asking this helps us prioritise appropriately and ensure fairness for all patients. We believe continuity of care is vital to better patient care and will always try to ensure you see the right person at the right time. We may also direct you to a more appropriate service within the wider healthcare community that can help you without you even having to see a GP.
Talk about the main issue that concerns you
Ideally to get the best out of your time with the clinician, please tell them about the main issue that concerns you. If you have other symptoms or worries, of course tell them about these in case they are interlinked to give them the full picture.
- Be on time for your appointment
When patients turn up late to an appointment, the team may not be able to accommodate fitting you in between their other appointments, so we ask that you arrive on time. Please tell us if you are unable to attend an appointment as these are precious and we may be able to offer this time to another patient who is in need of our services. There may be an occasion when a clinician is running late for your appointment due to an emergency or a more complex consultation, if this happens we apologise as we try to keep to the time we have given to you.
- Tell us what you want
During your consultation, please tell the clinician what you are hoping for as an outcome of your appointment so that you can plan your care together.
- Write it down
Our team will always try to make you feel welcome and relaxed in our surgery, however studies show that consultations with clinicians can make people feel anxious no matter how confident and together they feel in their everyday lives. It is easy in a consultation where you are feeling rushed, stressed or embarrassed to forget some of the more important points of your medical issue. It may help you to write things down and bring this to your appointment.
