You’ll get more out of your visit to your doctor or health professional and find it easier to make decisions if you understand the treatments, medicines or tests that they recommend – and that means asking questions.

Asking questions keeps you informed which helps you make the best health care decisions for you. It can also help keep you safe when receiving healthcare.

No one should leave a doctor’s appointment unsure about their health condition and what they need to do next.

Ask Me 3

Ask Me 3 encourages you to ask three questions at the end of every health appointment or consultation:

1. What is my main problem?
2. What do I need to do?
3. Why is it important for me to do this?

You can use the Ask Me 3 form to remind you to ask the questions and write down the answers when you see your doctor or other health professional. You can ask your health professional to write the answers for you.  A support person or carer can also do this for you.

While Ask Me 3 focuses on you asking questions, it is important that your health professional gives you answers that you understand. Your health professional should encourage you to ask questions, and allow enough time for questions and answers during your appointment.

Question Builder tool

Healthdirect’s Question Builder is a free online tool to help you think about questions you might like to ask your doctor, and to prepare for any questions they may ask you when you go to an appointment.

The tool was developed for Australian consumers by Healthdirect Australia and the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care.

The Question Builder takes you through a series of steps:

• selecting which type of appointment you are preparing for,
• working out the questions that you would like to ask,
• helping you to decide which ones are the most important questions so you can make sure you get them answered,
• thinking about questions your doctor might ask so you can make sure you have the information they need.

You can then print or email your list of questions. Take your printed list to your appointment, or open the email on your phone or other device.

The Healthdirect website also has a list of questions you might want to ask before you decide about health care options. Some of the questions they suggest are:

5 Questions to ask before a test or treatment

Choosing Wisely Australia recommends asking your doctor 5 questions before you agree to any test or treatment. All tests, treatments, and procedures have some risk, even if it’s just discomfort from a blood test. It’s worth talking to your doctor about how much benefit there is, and what the risks might be. Asking these 5 questions can help make sure you end up with the right care for you:

1. Do I really need this test, treatment or procedure? Tests may help you and your doctor or other health care provider determine the problem. Treatments, such as medicines, and procedures may help to treat it.
2. What are the risks? Will there be side effects to the test or treatment? What are the chances of getting results that aren’t accurate? Could that lead to more testing, additional treatments or another procedure?
3. Are there simpler, safer options? Are there alternative options to treatment that could work. Lifestyle changes, such as eating healthier foods or exercising more, can be safe and effective options.
4. What happens if I don’t do anything? Ask if your condition might get worse — or better — if you don’t have the test, treatment or procedure right away.
5. What are the costs? Costs can be financial, emotional or a cost of your time. Where there is a cost to the community, is the cost reasonable or is there a cheaper alternative?

You can find these questions in other languages on the Choosing Wisely Australia website.

Other useful resources

Northern NSW Health Literacy has a range of tools for consumers to help build their health literacy skills.  Their PLAN handout is a helpful tool for patients to get the most from a health care appointment. It has 4 parts:

• Prepare: Suggestions for how to prepare for your appointment
• Listen and share: Information you might need to know
• Ask: Some questions to ask
• Note down what you need to do next – the handout has space for you to write down answers.

You can read more tips on communicating with your doctor in Top tips for talking to your doctor from Jean Hailes or Better Health Channel’s Top tips for talking to your doctor.