Remember your time limit

It’s tempting to word-vomit all your medical concerns once you’re sitting in the doctor’s office, but it’s important to remember to keep to one issue.

“You only have 10 minutes (sometimes 15), and that really is only enough to deal with one problem fully,” says Dr Watson.

“I know that’s frustrating if you have several things you want to talk about, but it simply isn’t possible to deal with more than one thing in a 10-minute appointment.

“When we do try and do this, we end up with not enough time to fully talk about each problem, so things can be missed and we may run over time – which then has an impact on the rest of our patients that day, who are all waiting to be seen.” If you have multiple issues to discuss, it’s usually a better idea to book multiple appointments.

How to speak to your GP to get the most out of your appointment