Why do hospital consultants write like this?

Is it your peacock Galen?

No very pretty. Dark brown with lovely blue roundels on the wings. Nice to see though as up to now have only seen cabbage whites and the odd fritillary.

I meant to type butterfly, got distracted and missed it off.
Wouldn't have a peacock, the seagulls are noisy enough!

Galen you had me worried there! I really was thinking Peacock as in a large noisy bird with a long and very beautiful tail.

A butterfly I can cope with. I think a peacock would chase me rather than the other way. They can be aggressive!

I was a medical secretary in the "olden days". I used to type letters that said things like "this middle aged, overweight and over anxious lady presented yet again with vague symptoms. I have tried to reassure her with no success. Hopefully you can help!" Can you imagine that nowadays?

I would rather be called a "pleasant lady".

The FLK thing is obviously common all over the country. FLKNFF Funny looking kid, normal for Fife.

I seriously thought you meant the avian sort of peacock. We often stayed at a campsite where ther were peacocks and they were very nosy and messy. Had to keep a broom by the door to shoo them off.

I thought you meant a peacock and assumed you lived in a huge house with a massive garden with peacocks wandering free lol

No! I live in a terraced house!

"Exit Galen pursued by a peacock!"

It wouldn't have to go very fast!

I've been a medical secretary for the past 20 odd years and in my experience if you're described as pleasant it's usually because you are - if you're not described as pleasant then you might have to worry!!

A peacock escaped from a local aviary and took up residence in our close a few years ago. The old lady in the bungalow opposite was scared to leave her house [it spent a lot of time on her garage roof]. It was a nasty, bad tempered creature; eventually someone came and caught it with a big net and took it away after it had terrorised the neighbourhood for several days.

Is being described as pleasant necessarily a compliment?

Personally I wouldn't mind being referred to as a very pleasant lady, although I can't imagine anyone being deluded enough to do it! The consultant never said much about my MiL after her appointments - possibly because the only thing he could realistically say was "What Have I done that you're sending this mad old bat to me?"

In a letter from one consultant to another DH was described as someone who had read up on his condition and had a good understanding of the available treatment. Which was perfectly true.

Whether my consultant thought me pleasant or not doesn't come into it because he doesn't, apparently, have to write to offer test results. He is now organising for me to see another consultant but as I have no control over what is said over lunch no doubt this one will automatically see me as 'unpleasant'. The silly thing is when I last saw him I felt and feel things were improving so I was expecting to be signed off. In my opinion - be it ever so 'umble - this was too soon and I just wanted to make sure another appointment was made in six months to keep a 'watching brief'. Now I have a booking with another spinal specialist, another hip specialist and another steroid injection being arranged. Sadly none of this would happen had I been able to afford Private Medicine.

Apart from the obvious Galen do you have any idea what ICE means (I have picked up from the health centre copies of the letters my consultant sent booking all the new consultants). On the steroid one he mentions ICE and I don't think it meant 'holding back'. Perhaps 'Irritating, clearly emptyheaded'?

Perhaps they "write" like this because (I believe) they dictate these letters and someone types them and puts them in envelopes.
Can you imagine, in any other walk of life?
Very senior managers sometimes have PAs that do some of their letters I suppose, but the rest of the world does its own typing. When was the last time anyone recruited a typist (outside the NHS)?
And well, this is the way they have always done it. But what is wrong with "i saw your patient Mrs Jones at my clinic" ? Patronising in the extreme.

I have spent a lot of last week with my grandma who is quite poorly. She is 97 and really good for her age. She very rarely "takes to her bed" and has been complaining about pains in her side so I called the doctor out to see her yesterday. Her GP arrived at 10.30 am and was genuinely sad to see her in bed, he was so lovely to her, sitting on the edge of her bed, holding her hand and talking about the old days. He said that she was one of his first ever patients when he was a newly qualified GP and that he was "making it his personal business to see her though to her telegram" After quite a while I mentioned that he would be busy and have other patients to see, he looked at grandma and said "yes I do have other patients to see, but none are as special to me as this one" . I was quite tearful as he seemed so genuine and lovely. Sadly not enough doctors have this special bedside manner about them.

That's lovely Gillybob and I bet your Grandma really appreciated him too. I hope she feels better soon

gillybob it's nice to hear of a patient not being treating as a number which happens so often these days. Your grandma is obviously a very special person I hope she feels better soon.

Yes it is Gillybob perhaps it's time for patients to fight back. I'd describe one of our GPs as DoK HAF HE...Doesn't Know His Arse From His Elbow

Why are they still writing letters? Why not emails? Quicker and cheaper imo.

I expressed surprise to my physio when he said he was going to write a letter to my GP and suggested email and he looked as if no one had thought of it before. He then said it didn't cost anything as it went in the NHS post! Paper, envelope, fuel.....................

The orthopaedic hospital that I attend get the letters typed in India. On the whole they are well typed. I always receive a copy but it irritated me a few months ago when I read the long post op letter as it mentioned my name on nearly every line and sometimes twice in the same sentence.

Dictation skills course needed charleygirl?
Quite movalot - cost of posting a letter let alone the time taken to dictate and then get typed. Maybe when the kind of software that you just talk to and it turns into text gets a bit more slick, they will just go straight to that and see their deathless prose appear in type before their eyes

DD's registrar is a female doctor about the same age as her and the two of them get on like a house on fire, probably the shared Irish genes, (or is that racist!). She described DD as this 'delightful lady' in a letter to her GP so I do not see how the phrase, certainly in her case, can be either sexist or condescending.

DD gets a copy of every letter sent out to her GP or anyone else involved in her treatment, including internal memos (as we used to say) from the doctor who sees her in the clinic to the consultant when, as this week, there was a detailed discussion about the options for the next stage of her treatment.

I suspect that now that patients can see all their notes doctors have reversed the system 'delightful lady' means a patient we can work with 'this lady' means a bit difficult to deal with and 'this patient' means really diificult, doesnt take medication regularly and ignores our advice.