What is a Standard Appointment?
When we refer to a Standard Appointment or Consultation, we mean a consultation with one of our doctors of 10 to 15 minutes in duration. During this consult our doctors can safely deal with 1 or 2 issues. Usually this will be something that has made you feel unwell in the last few days, not something that you have been suffering from for months.... or years)
A standard consultation also includes our Video consultation service or Phone consults.
Typical issues dealt with in a 'Standard Consultation' would include (but are not limited to) the following:
Tonsilitis
Coughs/Colds/Fevers etc
Urinary Tract or Kidney Infections
Routine Script such as Contraceptive Pill etc
Headaches
Acute Illness (something that has made you feel unwell in the last few days)
Gastritis
It can take 5-15 minutes to safely diagnose and manage a single issue for one patient.
While it can seem perfectly reasonable to save up all your issues for your one visit of the year to your GP, it is not a style of medicine that we practice at GBMC.
From a Health & Safety perspective it does not lead to good outcomes for you as a patient and we will not compromise your healthcare by pretending otherwise.
If you have a 'shopping list' of issues or a problem of long-standing, you need to let us know in advance as we may need to book an extended consultation for you.
Issues that require an Extended consultation include (but are not limited to):
Any Mental Health issue (but not review appointments)
Any consultation in which you wish to discuss multiple issues
Any health problem of long-standing (especially
Second opinions
We are happy to book an Extended Consultation for anyone who needs longer with the doctor, but you should be aware that more time costs more money.
This may seem unfair but as well as being a medical centre we are also a small business, with all the costs and overheads of any small business.
The product we are selling is 'Doctor Time' and the more of it you need, the more it costs.
Obviously, you are also buying our medical expertise and all that goes with it, but we take that as read.
Financial concerns aside, we also have the issue of trying to keep our appointments running on time. We have a patient booked in every 15 minutes, so it is essential that we keep on schedule out of fairness to all our patients.
We cannot do this without making some effort to manage the length of our doctor consults.
Thanks for taking the time to read this and for helping us to continue to provide high-quality healthcare to you and your families.