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- Page navigation anchor for What advice should we give to patients about their consultation?What advice should we give to patients about their consultation?
It is good to give people pointers to help them get the best out of their GP appointments. However, I feel that 'Tips to help your GP' implies that the GP is the most important person. The tips focus on helping the GP. Whilst this is obviously important, the patient is the person who should come first.
Being a GP must be incredibly stressful. Undoubtedly there are things that patients do which make the job harder. But patients are often nervous, may have had bad experiences and may be very poorly. I think it is important to be as positive and helpful as possible, rather than giving them reasons to feel worse.
As a lay public contributor in research and health issues - but also as a patient - I ask that you consider revisiting your article and changing its focus.
Your poster has no introduction and seems critical towards the patient reading it. Parts feel very patronising, such as the points that focus on 'behaviour and attitude' in the consultation, telling people to cover their mouths when coughing, to 'dress appropriately' and to make sure they have washed.
Many patients would love your suggestion about continuity of care, but then they would often be unable to see someone for several weeks. Booking with the 'correct professional' is ideal but it is not always obvious who this is.
I honestly think it would be more helpful and positive to have 'Tips To Help Your GP Help You' and to help the pa...
Show MoreCompeting Interests: None declared. - Page navigation anchor for What advice should we give to patients about their consultation?What advice should we give to patients about their consultation?This article claims to be helping clients to become better patients, but it seemed to be focused on making life easier for the GP.The use of the word 'better' patients implies that there are worse patients. Many patients feel bad enough about bothering their GP, (who we know are very busy and working under increasing pressure) and telling us that we should be better patients is not a way to build a trusting relationship.The desired consultation appears to be akin to a conveyor belt process - prep, speak, examine, leave. It takes no account of a person's ability to communicate or cultural background, for example, it is inappropriate to ask a Muslim woman to get partially undressed in the waiting room.With the approach described in this paper, the chance to identify what may be the real reason for a consultation is reduced - mental health and abuse issues being just two examples.As Professor Paul Freeling used to say, “the art of general practice is organising the chaos of the first presentation”. The approach in this paper takes away the art in general practice.Competing Interests: None declared.