TY - JOUR T1 - Length of consultation: how well do patients choose? JF - The Journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners JO - J R Coll Gen Pract SP - 498 LP - 499 VL - 37 IS - 304 AU - Leslie Lowenthal AU - Elizabeth Bingham Y1 - 1987/11/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/37/304/498.abstract N2 - Patients attending a rural Berkshire surgery were invited to decide the length of appointment they required with the general practitioner. They were offered a choice of five minutes, 10 minutes, or longer, but the general practitioner was unaware of the time requested. Of 200 consecutive patients 115 requested five minutes, 80 requested 10 minutes and five requested longer. The mean consultation length of these groups was 6.5, 9.2 and 14.5 minutes, respectively. Patients given a diagnosis of psychiatric disorder were less accurate in their choice of time than any other diagnostic group. The results suggest that patients are generally good at estimating the time they require in consultation, and do not request over long appointments. It may thus be reasonable to allow patients to choose their consultation length. ER -