Going to a health appointment

One of your jobs as a carer may be to help the person you care for when they go to appointments with doctors or other health professionals.

Before the appointment

When you book an appointment, think about how much time you need. If there are a lot of things to talk about, you can ask for a longer appointment. You can also ask to be seen quickly, if the problem is urgent.

It’s a good idea to bring to the appointment:

• the person’s Medicare card
• any concession cards (for example, their Pensioner Concession Card)
• their health fund card (if they belong to a health fund)
• any test results or X-rays
• the referral from their usual doctor, if they are seeing a specialist
• your emergency care plan, which includes a list of all their current medicines
• a pen and paper

It’s also a good idea to plan what you need to talk about and ask. Write down any questions or problems you want to talk about. You can use Healthdirect’s Question Builder to help you plan for a medical appointment.

During the appointment

During the appointment, you can write down the answers so you don't forget anything.

You can ask about:

• the person's condition and how it will affect them
• what treatment is available
• how you should care for the person
• how to manage medicines
• whether there are any danger signs you need to be aware of
• when the doctor next needs to see the person
• whether there is anything else you need to know