Background Face to face appointment time between patient and clinician is precious. Patients can wait months between appointments, and usually allow clinicians to take the lead in their consultations. These may concentrate on disease related outcome measures and treatment targets. Patients may not feel able to raise other issues, or may forget to ask about them. Waiting time for appointments is almost inevitable, so to help patients make best use of their waiting time we decided to add a “What Do I Want to Talk About” area.

Objectives To assess patient response to “What do I Want to Talk About”.

Methods In the centre of patient waiting area we put up an “What Do I Want To Talk About” A4 poster, encouraging patients to write down the questions important for them to discuss within their consultation. We provided A6 paper sheets and pens for patients to take into their consultations. We asked patients to provide feedback by anonymous questionnaire asking these questions:

Do you think this is a good idea? Yes/No; Have you used it? Yes/No.

Would you use it in future? Yes/No; Other comments?

Results 26 patients completed the questionnaire. Of these, 25 patients (96%) thought it was a good idea. 3 (12%) said they had used these slips previously. 18 (69%) said they would use them on their next visit.

Comments: 'Good Idea thanks. I usually forget what I want to ask when I get in there and then remember on my way home'; “Why hasn't this been done before?”; “I always do notes before my appointments as it helps both doctor and patient”; “This is a really good idea, and thanks for the pen”

Clinician's comments: “Really helpful for consultations, patients seem better prepared ”; “I used the same paper to respond to questions and as an aide-memoire for patients”

Conclusions 'What do I Want to Talk About' is a very simple, universally applicable idea which uses minimal resources. It may help some patients better prepare for consultations, and ensure key issues important to patients are addressed during consultations.

Disclosure of Interest None declared