clinicalhow-to
Talking to your GP when time is short
How to get something useful out of ten minutes — the one-page prep, the opening sentence that changes the appointment, and what to ask for in writing before you leave.
Three questions, not thirty
Appointment question builder
Choose what is actually on your mind and get a short printable list of questions, ordered so the important one is asked first.
Updated 1 July 2026Runs in your browser only
Appointments are short, information arrives badly, and almost everybody leaves having asked the wrong thing. The fix members have converged on is unglamorous: decide the three questions before you go in, and ask the most important one first, in case there is no time for the others.
Tick what is on your mind. This builds the list, puts the urgent things at the top, and keeps it short enough to be asked. It does not know anything about you and it does not tell you what to take.
Two things that make a short appointment go better
Say at the start how many questions you have. "I have three things" changes how the time is allocated, and it takes four seconds. Members report this more often than any other tactic on the site.
And write down the answer in the room, however awkward it feels. Almost nobody remembers a spoken answer accurately by the evening, and the version you tell yourself later is reliably more frightening than the version you were given.
More at talking to your GP when time is short and questions to take to your first appointment.
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Questions to take to your first appointment
How to turn a vague dread into three specific questions before an appointment that is going to last nine minutes, with the ones members most wish they had asked.
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