My doctor has described me as ‘a very pleasant lady’

[HouseyMcHouseFace]

And it made me cry.

I have to go to hospital tomorrow for an infusion and needed a letter from my doctor as it’s an urgent referral thing. She wrote the referral with my age, weight and the fact that I’m very pleasant.

I am feeling poorly and a bit down at the moment but it really made my day.

Oh HouseyMcHouseFace I'm so sorry, I forgot to say I hope all goes well for you tomorrow and you feel better very soon

Standard doctor speak I'm afraid. Better than being called a cunt though!

I am a gp and it's so nice to hear patients appreciate what we write.
Yes can be a bit bland doctor speak but not all of us do it... I write "thank you fir seeing this delightful lady" or "pleasent" if the patient is nice, engaged, sensible etc.
Code for bolshy is...
"thank you for seeing this very informed lady... Who has presented with a print out from the Internet"

Or "thank you for seeing Mrs blogs, despite my best efforts at investigating her vague aches and my strenuous efforts at reassuring her there appears to be nothing wrong, she feels a consultant opinion is needed"

You sound a genuinely pleasent patient.
Good luck with transfusion.. I had one last week for chronic anaemia and feel fab... For now!

Wishing you the best of luck tomorrow OP - sending you a friendly hug ......... and I'm sure you are pleasant x

Thank you to people who are saying it is probably because I am actually pleasant, I’m now having a little preen.

I’m very much looking forward to being pumped full with iron so that I can stop shuffling around like an 90 year old and stop crying at every bloody thing.

In my job I receive GP referrals every day and if they say you are pleasant, they mean it. IME it never means anything other than what it says. DD was described as "a rather fabulous and clever young lady" by her consultant in his letter to the GP. They are v good at implying bolshiness where necessary.

OP you sound lovely and I sincerely hope things improve soon.

I work in the NHS and write letters like these everyday. In my 15 years of practice I’ve never known ‘very pleasant’ or ‘delightful’ to be used as standard language. We use it sparingly and only if we mean it.

Most people are civil, some are rude, but occasionally you get a patient who is so lovely it feels right to acknowledge that in the letter. Not that it makes any difference to the care they get (everyone is treated the same) but its like a code for “here’s a good egg, please be extra kind to them”.

It will probably be banned one day as we slowly morph into emotionless NHS robots.

It’s quite and eye opener reading through medical notes written in the 70’s and 80’s though. Doctors could just say whatever the hell they liked back then.

I get "this 48 year old GPs wife" - which I expect is a warning that dh will come with me and ask All The Questions!

Yes but it also means that you will probably know how the system works as you live with a GP so we'd better watch our P's and Q's and for the love of God don't talk down to you, cos you will pick up on it immediately.

You know too much.........

In the same vein, if a consultant twigs his patient is a nurse, the letter will always say "This 48 year old nurse....." IT'S A WARNING!!!!

I saw a letter from decades ago from a paediatrician that said “he has a brother who is mentally subnormal.” Couldn’t say that today!

Psychiatry letters will often specifically mention what someone is wearing as that’s part of the examination.

I once had a breast scan and the consultant said enthusiastically: 'what fantastic mammaries you have'. I took that to mean 'great tits love'.

opinionatedfreak- the problem with mentioning that a relative is a medical negligence lawyer is that it can backfire.

I could cite two instances that I know of where patients were too conservatively managed due to threats regarding a brother who was a DM journalist, and the above re a lawyer.

No one was willing to go that extra mile for them in case the result wasn't a ticker-tape parade success.

OP, I can’t imagine you’d be described as pleasant if the doctor didn’t think you were.

Does anyone know what sensible is doctor code for?

And 'this patient, a nurse' gets far more attention than 'this GP's wife'!

The former tells you you can talk about the oesophagus and splenic artery; the second that she may well be no more medically educated than most of the public but she a) might act like she's a consultant physician, flinging wrongly coined medical phrases around and b) there's a thinly veiled threat there!

My son has been in & out of Gt Ormond St hospital for years. Had his first surgery at 6 months. I will never forget the consultant's letter on discharge after his first surgery. It said "X is a very happy baby, a credit only to his mother".

I left my ex while pregnant due to severe violence, and I had no support / family. That comment meant so much to me. Still does.

I once had a urologist who brought students in to see my photos of DS's bawbag, clapped her hands and said "this mother has given us a textbook description of an infant hydrocele and pictures too!" God love her, she's very enthusiastic about her job.

cavycavy Actually I do think it affects aspects of healthcare encounters.

I find polite patients who listen to what you're asking or requesting have 'a better experience' than those who grunt, eye roll and glare! Those get no more than the basics of what they're there for.

Note I don't mean the frightened, the vulnerable, the confused.

I was referred for allergy testing. The hospital doctor wrote to my GP with the results and I got a copy. The letter started 'Thank you for referring this pleasant middle-aged woman.' We couldn't stop laughing.

There are certainly plenty of mean spirited comments on here . The op posted that she was feeling under the weather and being called a pleasant lady had cheered her up . Was it really necessary to comment that they say that about every patient !!
As it happens , they certainly don’t . I’ve been a nurse for donkey’s years and doctors only use terms like pleasant , delightful etc about patients that they find nice to deal with . Mind you my dd is a student doctor and they were warned not to use subjective terms like this .
Wishing you all the best with your hospital appointment .

Where 10 is good and 1 is not so good

10 delightful
9 very pleasant
8 pleasant
7 charming
6 sensible
5 informed
4 concerned
3 anxious
2 assertive
1 challenging

Am a doctor myself and in my experience this kind of phrase is used to convey to our colleagues that we are sending them a nice person to be looked after as well as possible. We definitely use it for the patients who we like! Hope you feel better soon!

Some of our doctors write like this. I think it's just a way of phrasing the letter. Doubt there is a code too it.

It’s just a polite way of writing a greeting to another health professional and basically would mean this is a nice “normal” person. Please take good care of them. Nothing else, I’m sure you’re not bolshy, you sound lovely. Hope your infusion makes you feel better

That was a nice thing for your doctor to say OP. Hope you feel better soon.

My Cardiologist once described me in a letter to my dr as a "delightful lady"