ABSTRACT
Listening to the patient’s story has long been regarded as central to the practice of medicine. The role of the general practitioner as someone who is easily available for talking, offering time and listening within the community is a major theme for these doctors. Time spent listening is thought to reap rewards in the future and alter the balance of the doctor—patient relationship. The idealising tone of these responses contrasts with the similar consensus that spending time listening can be hard and frustrating, and may produce problems: ‘It’s much easier to give a prescription than it is to actually listen to people.’ The difficulty is differentiating the purely physical problem from the physical problem being used as a ticket to consult about other issues. Spotting cues as the consultation proceeds has long been recognised in the literature of general practice as part of the doctor’s work as part of the ‘physician’s clinical instinct’.
