When you’re feeling unwell, ‘preparing’ what to say to your GP is usually the last thing on your mind – you need to run the gauntlet with the surgery’s booking system first.
But according to Dr Dean Eggitt, a leading GP with more than two decades’ experience, arriving for your appointment – be it in person or on the phone – with a thorough knowledge of what is ailing you and when it began can have a huge impact.
He told the Daily Mail: ‘It’s not the patient’s job to have rehearsed and have a brilliant script – getting that information is my job as a GP, so the patient doesn’t have to think.
‘But telling us everything we need to know from the start makes our job a whole lot easier and it leaves our brain freer to think of the problem that’s actually happening.
‘Being a GP is harder than people think it is. People think that we’re treating toenail infections, waterworks, earaches… but actually the job is sifting through them to find out which patient is dying, identify them, and treat them.’
His comments come amid a spate of fresh examples of Britons who have tragically died after failing to have their health concerns taken seriously by medical professionals, or discovered they are facing a life–limiting disease after being repeatedly fobbed off.
Earlier this week, an inquest heard how a 20–year–old law student was labelled a ‘time–waster’ and tragically died after being misdiagnosed with gastroenteritis, and a mother, 41, is facing an uncertain future after her GP dismissed her as having a UTI 21 times – when in reality it was stage four cancer.
With this in mind, Dr Eggitt shares five ways to ensure you’re getting the most from your GP appointment – and how to make sure your concerns are taken seriously.
A leading GP has shared his advice for making the most of your doctor’s appointment
Get a mid–morning appointment
Last year official NHS statistics revealed a total of 7.6million patients faced a delay of more than four weeks across September, October and November – up 312,112 (4.2 per cent) on the same months in 2024.
With GP appointments often as hard to get hold of as Glastonbury tickets, finding out there’s a peak time of day to get advice about your health can feel like a kick in the teeth.
‘We’re human beings,’ explains Dr Eggitt. ‘If we’re tired, hungover, had an argument with our spouse or hungry, we will clinically perform less than we are able to.
‘The peak time to get a decent clinical review is mid morning.
‘If you see me the end of the day, you’re not going to get the best out of me. If you see me first thing in the morning and I’m stressed, tired, overworked, you’re not going to get the best out of me.’
He added: ‘If you can’t get an appointment and you’re stuck with the end of the day slot because that’s all you can get, you’re already on the losing foot. The GP will likely be exhausted, you‘re not going to get the best out of them at that point.
‘It’s incredibly mentally taxing being a GP – say I see 10 sore throats in a day, I’ve got to spot the one that could be cancer.’
And, if you’re worried that you won’t get the same level of care from a telephone consultation as you would a face-to-face consultation, Dr Eggitt says that doctors can glean just as much from them.
‘You can actually gain quite a lot of information from a patient over the telephone when they don’t think you can,’ he said.
‘I can tell that you’re alert, you’re engaging, you’re not confused and I can listen to your breathing.
‘There’s a lot that I can get over the telephone that I’m not asking you about, so you don’t know I’m getting the information.
‘From practice over time, and listening to patients, you can assess them quite well over the telephone, and you can spot the patient you need to see in the flesh.’
Come prepared
The average GP appointment lasts just ten minutes, which isn’t long to explain what is ailing you and for your practitioner to sift through your symptoms, diagnose you and come up with a treatment plan.
That’s why arriving ready and willing to talk can make your time in the doctor’s office much more fruitful.
An insider secret about GPs, they use a framework called ‘ICE’ which stands for ‘ideas, concerns, and expectations’ to silently assess their patients.
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So, it can be very helpful – and speed things up – if a patient comes ready to explain what they think is going on, why it is bothering them and what they hope to achieve from the appointment.
For instance, you might have a sore throat, be worried it’s cancer and would like a scan.
‘When I understand the patient’s ideas, concerns, and expectations, I can often address the patient’s needs, and then the patient leaves the consultation feeling happier,’ said Dr Eggitt.
‘So, as a patient, when you’re rehearsing your script to go in to see your GP, be clear about it; “This is what I think is going on, this is what I’m concerned about, and this is what I’m hoping we can do today”.
‘Giving short, sweet answers and getting to the point makes the GP’s job a whole lot easier.’
Similarly, remember that your GP isn’t privy to your social calendar – so when they ask how long you’ve had symptoms, be precise with dates – ‘since I came back from holiday’ won’t mean anything to them.
Don’t rely on Jess’ Rule
Jess’ Rule is a system which calls for family doctors to think again if a patient has had three appointments for their symptoms with no diagnosis.
The rule is named after 27-year-old Jessica Brady, who underwent surgery 20 times before she passed away in 2020.
Under the rule, doctors are encouraged to consider a second opinion, see patients face-to-face for physical examinations, or order more tests – but it shouldn’t be used as a fail-proof safety net, said Dr Eggitt.
‘When you request a second opinion, you’re not necessarily going to get one,’ he explained.
‘It depends upon resources and access. So, let’s, for example, say that you’re registered with a single-handed practitioner. How on earth are you going to get a second opinion if there is only one doctor at the surgery?
Dr Dean Eggitt spoke to the Daily Mail about how to get the most from your GP appointment
‘From a consultant perspective, I can write to the hospital, and often when I say, “I would like a second opinion, please”, they just write back and say, “No, we agree with the first opinion, and we’re not going to see the patient”.
‘Just because the government says this should happen doesn’t mean to say the NHS will deliver.’
Dr Eggitt is also keen to stress that Jess’ Rule is not the right to a second opinion, it’s a right to requesting a second opinion.
‘I’m just really keen that people don’t overly rely upon it as their safety net, because it’s not actually that great, although it has been brilliantly publicised,’ he added.
AI can help… as long as you have an open-minded GP
Over the past 18 months, ‘Dr Google’ has been replaced with ‘Professor AI Chatbot’.
Entering your symptoms and test results into an AI platform can provide useful insight into what is going on inside your body, and taking this research to your appointment is often appreciated by many GPs – including Dr Eggitt.
‘I love it when my patients say what they’ve Googled, because I want to know their ideas and concerns and expectations, and Google tells me that that’s exactly what they’re telling me. So that cuts to the chase, it’s brilliant.
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‘But if I am a GP with a big ego, or who’s anxious about myself, I might feel inferior to AI and feel threatened and start to put the patient at an arm’s distance.
‘That is one of the things doctors should never do, but that’s the reality, because we’re humans.’
Remember the limitations of the NHS
With a surge in private diagnostic testing and personal understanding about health and wellness issues, more people than ever are trying to prevent themselves from falling unwell – which is not how the NHS is set up.
Despite former health secretary Wes Streeting’s claims that the health service would be moving towards a ‘preventative model’, this will take time – and investment – so at present it is more focussed on treating the sick.
This can prove to be a sticking point if you want to be tested for conditions which you currently have no symptoms of.
‘The problem is that we have millions of patients whom, if we encourage to go get blood tests and talk to their GPs, the NHS simply won’t be able to cope,’ says Dr Eggitt.
‘The NHS is trying to find people who are sick and not coping and fix them. If you go hunting for trouble, we don’t have the capacity to cope with it.’
