Why we book twenty minutes when everyone else books ten.

The average UK GP appointment lasts a little over nine minutes. In that time a doctor is expected to greet you, take a history, examine you, reach a working diagnosis, agree a plan, write it up — and, ideally, notice the thing you almost didn't mention.

It's that last part that matters most. Research on consultation length consistently finds that the 'door-handle disclosure' — the real reason for the visit, raised as the patient is leaving — needs unhurried space to surface. Shorter consultations are associated with more prescribing, less explanation, and more re-attendance for the same problem.

So when we set up Fernbrook, the first design decision wasn't the waiting room or the website. It was the diary template: twenty minutes, as standard, for everyone.

• Enough time to take a proper history rather than triage by interruption.
• Enough time to examine properly and explain what we found.
• Enough time for the second question — the one you were nervous about.

Twenty minutes isn't a luxury add-on. It's the minimum dose of attention at which general practice actually works as intended. If you've only ever known the ten-minute version, the difference is hard to describe — so come and feel it instead.