One of the most common complaints levelled against doctors in the Health Service today is the difficulty in getting appointments, but once you have secured an appointment (if your symptoms haven’t already got better by themselves) you will have on average just seven and a half minutes with your doctor to try to resolve your health concerns and in that timescale, it is often difficult to come away with a sense of having achieved what you set out to do when you first made the appointment.
Discovering how to get the best out of your doctor involves you, the patient, helping to make the doctor’s job as easy as possible. It can take guile and subtlety, preparation and patience. But this important skill means that you can make a better patient of yourself and your doctor can make a patient better.
Learn more about why people in the Uk lie to their doctor
Explain your symptoms clearly. Before setting off for your appointment, make a short note of your symptoms and the questions that you would like to ask that relate to them. Keep it simple and short. Doctors will switch off when confronted with an exhaustive list or reams of illegible handwriting.
Prioritise. Don’t beat around the bush. Dry lips and athlete’s foot are a poor preamble to the breast lump or the blood in the urine. So be bold. Get to the point straight away. There’s a real risk otherwise that you’ll go to the doctor with chest pain only to emerge with a prescription for syrup of figs.
Don’t be embarrassed or shy. Doctors really have seen it all before. What is making you blush is really meat and drink to your doctor so just be frank and matter of fact about your symptoms of an intimate nature. Too many patients have failed to go to the doctor in time in the past and literally died of embarrassment.
Take any regular medicines with you. I appreciate that your regular doctor will know exactly what medicines you take, but what if you are seeing a locum, who is filling in for your doctor and who may not have a clue how to work the computer? It really helps if you take your medications in with you, and have kept a record.
Read more about some notes from Dr. Steele
Be polite and be a patient patient. Doctors’ receptionists may seem like dragons but their job is difficult and the way they talk to you reflects what they have been told to do by the doctor. Being courteous and communicative will help oil the wheels.
One person, one appointment. Try to avoid asking the GP to see all four of your children whilst you are there yourself for an appointment. Lack of time created by you will make the doctor’s job much harder and an accurate diagnosis less likely. If you want all the children seen, book extra appointments, otherwise you’re asking your doctor to carry out the impossible.
Double trouble, double appointment. Your GP is able to book a longer than usual appointment for complex and difficult problems like relationship issues, depression or the examination of an elderly patient. Don’t expect your back pain, crushing migraine headaches, pregnancy and piles all to be dealt with effectively at the drop of a hat.
Be honest about your lifestyle. There’s little point expecting your doctor’s prescription for indigestion to work effectively if you have failed to tell him that you drink half a bottle of brandy and smoke two packets of cigarettes every night. Be honest. Doctors are not there to judge or censor you, but they are well placed to heal you holistically however you choose to live your life.
Agree on a follow-up. Always leave the consulting room with a plan of action in case your symptoms change or fail to clear up. How many fatalities from meningitis might have been avoided by this simple measure?
Be specific. If you’re worried about a particular illness, put the doctor on the spot and ask: “Could this rash or this headache be meningitis or multiple sclerosis?” Ask the doctor what he would do if it were his child, wife, or mother. This is one of the best questions of all to ask when the doctor is sitting on the fence giving you treatment options.
Ask about side effects. If you do this, you’re less likely to be alarmed if your urine turns blue or you wake up in the morning feeling somewhat ‘hungover’. Ask if your treatment interacts with alcohol, food or other medicines too.
Your doctor is only human. Remember that your doctor has a busy workload and cannot always be infallible with limitless energy. Rudeness, lack of care and refusal to see patients when they need to be seen is not excusable ever, but missing a difficult diagnosis may be.
Specify anxieties. Voice any particular worries up front. A patient with a headache whose mother died of a brain tumour will seldom be satisfied with a prescription for paracetamol if at the back of their mind they are worrying that they are nurturing some fatal disease. Tell the doctor about your particular reasons for concern.
Consider taping the consultation. Many patients freeze when doctors pontificate. It goes in one ear and out of the other. Research has shown that only about 30 per cent of what the GP actually says ever registers with the patient. So jot down the important points, or better still ask if your doctor has any objection to you taping what he says on a mini-tape recorder. This way you miss none of what is said, the doctor is more likely to be precise and you can also play it back to a partner or relative if you wish so that they can benefit from the information also at a later time.
Moral support. If you feel in awe of your doctor, or intimidated, take someone into the consulting room with you for moral support. This is your right and this person may be able to act as a chaperone too should an intimate examination also be necessary.
Go for screening. NHS medicine is more involved than ever before in preventative health. Many GPs run well-man and well-women clinics to detect problems even before patients become aware of them. Simple tests for diabetes, heart disease, cancer and high blood pressure are easy, quick and potentially life-saving.
Request house calls and night visits appropriately. Requesting an out-of-hours visit purely to suit your social arrangements is unreasonable and asking for trouble. Try to get to the surgery if you possibly can and phone the doctor as soon as possible to ascertain if a house call is appropriate.
Second opinion. If, despite a reasonable discussion, examination and period of time devoted to one particular problem, you are still unhappy or uncertain about your diagnosis and treatment, it is reasonable to enquire about the possibility of a second opinion. Whilst a second opinion on everything from a fungal nail infection to thinning eyelashes is not justifiable, unexplained headaches, inexplicable exhaustion and recurrent miscarriages, for example, certainly may be.
Personality clashes and lack of trust. Most patients are happy with the care they get from their GP, but if you’re one of the unlucky few who does not like or trust your doctor, book appointments with another doctor in the practice or re-register with a different practice altogether. If you want to make a formal complaint, start with the doctor you’ve already seen and then, if the matter cannot be resolved, talk to the practice manager or the health authority itself. A recognised formal complaints procedure is established to assist you.
Keep him sweet! A spoonful of sugar always helps the medicine go down. It needn’t be blatant bribery, but if you really want to get the best out of your doctor, you may find presenting him with a large bottle of Glenlivet at Christmas time a particularly persuasive method!
