Clinics Clinic questions

[cornucopia]

Sorry @GrownHealth i wasn’t sure where to ask this.

I had a phone appointment yesterday with a dr at my clinic, I’m confused about a couple of things.

She said to take 1-2 days off every week and 2 weeks every 3 months.
Now if I take 1 day a week then that’s 12 days in a quarter, does that cancel out the need to take 2 weeks in a quarter? Or Is it either or ?


Then she said my next appointment was in 12 months.
I asked about quarterly appointments and was told no the next appointment I need is in 12 months but if I have any questions or problems I can always arrange an appointment at anytime.

I thought that I had to have an appointment every 3 months ?

 

[Muiredach]

She said to take 1-2 days off every week and 2 weeks every 3 months.
Now if I take 1 day a week then that’s 12 days in a quarter, does that cancel out the need to take 2 weeks in a quarter? Or Is it either or ?

This is more your specialist's individual guidance, rather than something that's mandated - it's not something we've seen suggested like this before to patients formally with specific times to take off. End of the day, a lot of patients feel they can't be without alleviating their symptoms for any period by having 'tolerance breaks'.

Then she said my next appointment was in 12 months.
I asked about quarterly appointments and was told no the next appointment I need is in 12 months but if I have any questions or problems I can always arrange an appointment at anytime.

This is something which is a bit of a hot topic within the industry, whether allowing patients to go without formal consultations for long periods of time is clinically safe or not. What I can say for sure, is many clinics are choosing to still follow up every 3 months because they feel longer periods aren't safe - while other clinics are pushing things as long as they feel justifiable.

There is no law stating consultations need to be every three months, hopefully I remember exactly what non-biding guidance that comes from - as I can't immediately recall.