Reassurance from your GP

There are many reasons why people go to see their GP. You may be hoping simply for advice, symptom relief, or more information about your condition, but behind this, a lot of the time you may also be looking for reassurance that your condition will possibly not need treatment, isn’t life-threatening or the symptoms can be treated or managed.

How your GP should reassure you

Making the diagnosis

One of the main roles of your GP is to help you cope with your illness. They can do this in several ways. First they obviously need to find out what is wrong with you.

Because of pressure of time, the average GP consultation only allows you eight to ten minutes per appointment which may be enough for simple problems, but more complicated symptoms may need several visits. Your GP will start by listening to your problem, making an assessment and then asking a lot of questions, which may seem unrelated or odd to you, but there could be a link to the pattern of other diseases which they’re trying to rule out.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions if it reassures you about what they’re thinking, or something is said that worries you. They may then need to examine you to gain more information before perhaps arranging tests such as blood tests or X-rays to further inform the diagnosis.

Once they’re clear about what the problem could be, they may give you a prescription for medication, or arrange for other treatments such as physiotherapy, or a referral to a specialist.

They may also simply tell you that the problem isn’t serious, may not need treatment and will settle on its own.

To achieve all of this, and to help you cope with whatever is to come, they’ll want to reassure you, to make you:

• More at ease with the problem
• Relaxed when talking
• Trust their opinion

This reassurance is important, and is the same with simple or serious illnesses, no matter how they need to be managed. There is very good evidence to show that a patient who has a good rapport with their doctor and understands or feels reassured about what is happening, will cope better with illness, be more compliant with treatment and do better as a result.

Getting the most from your consultation

The GP’s manner should help reassure the patient they’re listening and helping them. Patients sometimes complain that their GP ‘never looked up from the desk’, which doesn’t help reassure them or to get to the source of the problem. A relaxed, open, friendly but professional manner, good eye contact and reassuring tone of voice will put the patient at ease to start the consultation, and helps them tell their story (making the GPs work easier).

Even dressing the part matters – patients have more confidence in a doctor who is clean and smartly dressed, so looking the part of someone who is in control and knows what they’re doing. Considering the doctor has only eight to ten minutes to help you before the next patient is due in, it can be hard for them not to appear rushed, so making you feel relaxed and talking is a priority for everyone.

Your GP may repeat some of the things you say, with the aim of emphasising the nature of your problem whilst showing they’ve listened to what you have said, giving you a chance to check they’ve actually understood.

Your doctor should then try to explain simply, what the problem is, how it needs to be managed and whether it’s serious.

Sometimes GPs get it wrong and say something without thinking or intending the patient to read more into it, but the patient will hear, or think they hear, something more worrying. If that happens to you, don’t be afraid to stop the conversation at that point and ask them to repeat what they said, or explain what they mean.

It’s easy for a GP, to forget that patients may not know what is meant by a term, or may use that term to mean something else entirely, but unless you say something, the moment goes unquestioned and miscommunication can occur.

Increasingly GPs may offer a leaflet or a printout from a website for you to take away and read. This is very useful as it:

• Re-confirms what they have said
• Gives more information on the diagnosis
• Usually gives links to more information

It’s very easy to forget what was said during your consultation or to misinterpret what you think was said. However, leaflets can give further information you don’t understand or may worry over, and you may feel you need to come back to discuss this.

If you need to be examined, your doctor should try to make you as much at ease as possible, both for your own dignity and also because if you are relaxed it will make the examination easier and they will be able to gain more information. They should offer you time and privacy to undress, offer a chaperone and try to keep you covered as much as possible.

If overall you don’t get the reassurance you are seeking, it may help to write things down before you go, or ask for a double appointment if you need the time. If this doesn’t help, consider talking one of the other doctors in the practice, simply for a different perspective.

Reassurance at future GP appointments

Apart from the very simple short-lived illnesses or injuries, many conditions need regular follow-up appointments and re-assessment. This allows the doctor to check they have the right diagnosis, the management plan is working and there are no new complications developing.

It gives you an opportunity to fill the gaps in what you understood from previous consultations, express any ongoing or new concerns and to gain further reassurance from the doctor how things are going.

For patients with more serious or even terminal diagnoses, reassurance is also vital, even if there is little more that can be offered in the way of new treatments. Issues such as pain, breathing difficulties and concerns about the final hours of death, may need to be discussed in an unrushed way, and the more relaxed patient will cope better than one who is tense and anxious.