Dear LPG

I would like to ask all LPG readers a question which I am nearly sure that they will be able to respond to with a simple one word answer; and that one word would be ‘yes’.

My question is;

”Have you ever been to the doctor’s with a list of questions that you have planned to ask only to realise that when you leave, you completely forgot to ask the questions that you most wanted to in the first place?”

This used to happen to me when I visited the surgery but there are many other situations where it is really easy to be talked out of asking the questions that you originally wanted to because of what the other person in the conversation says.  It is so easy to have the conversation led by the person you are talking to with the result that you end up never getting your questions answered.  Especially in situations like during a GP consultation where, these days, you feel the clock ticking the minute you enter the consulting room.  If you are like me you have most probably spent so much time building up to being seen and you are so aware of how little time you have to fit in all you want to actually say that it all goes out of your head.

I just want to tell you about one solution to the problem that is so simple that we often don’t think about it.  The answer is to prepare some notes.  A question or two which is written down can help you to make sure that your agenda is satisfied before the end of the session. All you have to do is make sure that all your questions are asked before you leave. 

All that is really needed is a slip of paper and the resolve to produce it during the consultation so that you can check that you have all the information you need before you leave.

The first time that I  produced my slip of paper during such an interview I suppose I felt a little embarrassed but, we need to remember that it is OK for the person (doctor, solicitor, banker etc.) sitting the other side of the desk.  They usually have files of papers and notes about what to say to us.

EW, New Cross.