'My GP kicked me out after 6 minutes for something I thought we all did'

"I laughed at it at first as I thought the session would be at least 10 minutes..."

Going to see your GP is rarely a fun experience.

You’re already sick - not a good start - and then you have to sit in a waiting room until at least half an hour after your intended appointment time, just to be in and out with a doctor’s certificate and a script to fill in 15 minutes. That is, if you even get that long.

A Sydney Reddit user has taken to the platform after a less than satisfactory GP visit, leading everyone to wonder what the standard really is.

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“You can't just come in here after 11 months and ask me everything”

A Sydney Reddit user has taken to the platform this week after a visit to their GP.

The 19-year-old said they went to the doctor - who they’ve been visiting for 15 years - with their dad, planning to bring a few issues to the table.

But, after just 6 minutes, it all came to an end.

“I had a list of 5 minor issues I wanted to discuss with my GP. 6 minutes in and I was cut short with a very unpleasant, ‘You can't just come in here after 11 months and ask me everything. You need to come here more often. A standard session is 6 minutes. I need to go somewhere now’,” they wrote in the post.

“I laughed at it at first as I thought the session would be at least 10 minutes. ‘You should have booked a long appointment if you wanted to talk so much’.”

Unfortunately, it wasn’t a joke at all, and the poster was forced to leave - despite finding out later that the standard appointment time was instead 15 minutes.

And, this wasn’t the first time they’d had issues.

“2 years back when me and my dad visited the doctor, my dad asked a brief 10 second question about himself and upon walking to the register to pay, we found he was charging us for two sessions,” the poster wrote.

“This location is NOT bulk billed and charges $30 a session. They took us in 20 minutes late so it seems like they were just trying to make up time on my expense.”

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“Time for a new doctor”

Commenters on the post were raging over the doctor’s inadequacy, saying that 6 minutes is nowhere near enough for a standard session.

“Time for a new doctor. 6mins is not at all adequate,” said one person.

“The GP time slots are a joke. I walk into mine, I wait 30 minutes, I’m running 5 minutes late and they cancelled my appointment,” said another.

“Never been to a doctor with a six minute appointment. Standard is 10-15, Long is 20-30, and anything more than 30 is basically a combination of the two above. Six minutes is practically pointless. I'd be finding a new doctor,” a third agreed.

“I can understand why your GP may have been frustrated”

But, others weren’t so sure, with some saying that the poster should have known to book a longer appointment for the number of problems they wanted to discuss.

“6 minutes is not reasonable, but nor is expecting to cover 5 issues in a standard appointment of 15 mins. Most clinics will give you a guide that a standard appointment is for 1-2 issues only. You will need a long appointment for multiple issues,” one pointed out.

“A list of six ailments is too many for a short consult. You need to book a long consult if you are going to do that,” said another.

Others suggested that the doctor may have spent 15 minutes on the patient - they just weren’t yet in the room.

“I can understand why your GP may have been frustrated. He should have been more professional about it, but you probably should have booked a long consult if you had more than 1 or 2 things to discuss,” said one person.

“What patients don’t know is that the 15 minute block that is allocated also consists of looking at your medical history beforehand, seeing you, and also everything they have to do after you leave that you don’t see. Now consider if multiple people did that in a day, booked in a standard consult for multiple issues- the GP is now running late, other patients are getting frustrated, they abuse the reception staff or the GP, and the GP is stressed trying to play catch up for the whole day that is running behind now.”

Originally published as 'My GP kicked me out after 6 minutes for something I thought we all did'