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Ethical Scenario 13
You are a GP and your current patient is Mrs Jones, who has attended for a scheduled 10 minute routine appointment. Mrs Jones has discussed three of her concerns, and the appointment has already taken 25 minutes, leaving your surgery delayed. Mrs Jones has stated that she has one further concern that she would like to discuss.
Explain what actions you would take in this scenario.
Explain what actions you would take in this scenario.
Average Candidate Response
- I would listen to Mrs Jones’ concern as it may be very serious
- I would request Mrs Jones arrange a further appointment to discuss this additional concern, to avoid further delay to my clinic and to subsequent patients.
Excellent Candidate Response
This case raises a challenging but likely common scenario faced in General Practice. In managing this scenario, I need to weigh up the medical needs of Mrs Jones against the punctuality of my clinic and likely delay to subsequent patients.
I do not believe that a stock approach can be applied to all patients in this scenario and I feel that my likely actions would depend on the urgency and seriousness of Mrs Jones’ final concern. I would attempt to triage this promptly, and in the event that the concern was serious such as chest pain or shortness of breath, I would explore and manage this further. Contrastingly, if Mrs Jones had a non-acute concern, I would politely request her to arrange a further appointment at later date so that this matter can be addressed comprehensively.
In preventing future similar challenges, I would request that that reception staff arrange double appointments for patients with multiple concerns, as well as attempting to establish patients’ full range of concerns at the beginning of consultations so that important clinical matters are not neglected.
This case raises a challenging but likely common scenario faced in General Practice. In managing this scenario, I need to weigh up the medical needs of Mrs Jones against the punctuality of my clinic and likely delay to subsequent patients.
I do not believe that a stock approach can be applied to all patients in this scenario and I feel that my likely actions would depend on the urgency and seriousness of Mrs Jones’ final concern. I would attempt to triage this promptly, and in the event that the concern was serious such as chest pain or shortness of breath, I would explore and manage this further. Contrastingly, if Mrs Jones had a non-acute concern, I would politely request her to arrange a further appointment at later date so that this matter can be addressed comprehensively.
In preventing future similar challenges, I would request that that reception staff arrange double appointments for patients with multiple concerns, as well as attempting to establish patients’ full range of concerns at the beginning of consultations so that important clinical matters are not neglected.