Any doctors here? Secret code? Flattery?

[AyDeeAitchDee]

Hi all.

So I've had various medical appointments lately.

And get copied in to the letters from various doctors back to my GP.

And they all LOVE me the letters all start like:

"I saw this delightful woman today"

"I had the pleasure of meeting with this lovely lady today"

Etc etc.

Now I'm polite and all. But don't warrant this sort of flattery.

So I'm guessing it's some sort of code?

Would love to be filled in please. Or just hear theories.

I think it means "This one isn't an arsehole or a conspiracy theorist and they wash."

I always thought it meant the opposite!

I get this too - always wonder if they're being sarcastic!

@spiderlight it's a while time since I read one but 'interesting' cover a great deal and is sometimes positive.

Fragrant. Smelly I mean.

Mine always mention the fact that I’m a senior nurse - means be careful what they prescribe me cause I’ll know if it’s wrong

Mine generally start with "this pleasant midwife" as a heads up or sometimes "this well informed midwife" after I've gone in with some up to date research on the best way to resolve some obscure orthopedic problem.

That consultant was not impressed with my research but I wasn't impressed with his competence and binned him off for someone much better! :)

I’ve seen this thread type several times ...

I can assure you it is standard - I say this because the absolute cunt of a consultant who touched me inappropriately and at another meeting was so sarcastic and rude (presumably because I hadn’t done what he wanted) started off his letter with that crap.
It’s more a sign that the NHS still think it matters what a doctor thinks of their patients. As if it did...

My dh has this ' I met this delightful man ..' a consultant once wrote..
I did a double take 😊

I am guilty of nearly all of these.
I had the pleasure of meeting= there were no obvious isues
Well informed = knows more than I do
Charming = well spoken and articulate

@Dogsaresomucheasier

Dh’s had a lot lately. They all refer to his long service in the nhs in the first paragraph. I hope it means, “one of our own, look after him!”

I had a consultant actually say that to me......that as I was staff they'd look after me. I told him that I hoped they'd look after everyone! :)

I also had an a&e consultant ask how many kids I had and when I informed him (very ill) dd was my only one he said they better make sure she got better! Almost as if she'd been one of 3 they wouldn't have bothered

I write that in all my letters to patients unless they have been particularly difficult and mostly because it is a pleasure to meet people. It is the part of my job i love and why i do my job

We do this too in the vet world, if we see a patient for a second opinion and we write a letter back to the referring vet, or if we refer a patient, “thank you for seeing this lovely dog / beautiful cat / good natured rabbit”. Seems to be mainly older vets that still do this, but it was the standard way to write a report at university. We see it a lot less these days sadly, I always quite liked it.

I'm a nurse and when we've had consultant letters for the children it often says 'we met bill with his very knowledgeable mum'.

@ChaChaCha2012

It's standard consultant speak, means you're alright, not going to be a difficult patient.

My letters always mention my legal background, which means "may get litigious if we mess up"!

Yeah, mine mentions that I’m a nurse, which means don’t try to bullshit her because she understands what you’re talking about.

I've seen a lot of Consultant letters with that on them. The GP's dont use that in their letters. Just "Lady" and "Gentleman"

I have listened to literally thousands of clinic letters being dictated, these are standard openings, especially now patients can see their records. Before that a comment like 'Guardian reader of little intelligence' or 'funny looking kid' would have been a common opener. Not you obviously OP!

Mine always used to mention that I was NHS staff.

After I left they now say ".... who is a >profession< at >location

I get loving, well-informed parent a lot in DS's letters, quite happy about that to be honest if it means if you hurt my child I will come for you and yes, I am informed enough to know what 'hurt' means in this context

It's not standard because I've never been described as delightful even though I blood am.

This happened to me when DH had his first consultant appointment after Parkinsons diagnosis. I had lots of questions about treatment and options etc
The letter back to the GP started with ‘ I met this very pleasant gentleman today with his wife.....

DH still likes to laugh about it and he likes to sing me the little mix song that starts with ‘ I was born without a zip on my mouth 😂

I had a “delightful young lady” in my early twenties - I assumed because he was the family doc for years he wanted to make sure i was well looked after, I must’ve had quite the ego back then
I think these terms are an old-fashioned thing that has managed to stay around.

It’s better than some I’ve seen from the 1960’s.

You never know when a gp refers a delightful patient if their being sarcastic or not though so you proceed with caution just in case 🤨

I’m worried now what I did to offend as my latest letter started with “this lady attended clinic”...

Not a code, means nothing, totally standard.

Some people use it for everyone even if you are a dickhead, some miss it out for dickheads, some use it for no-one.

I'm in the no-one category. A lot of my patients genuinely aren't pleasant - I work partly with offenders - and given it's a character judgement to use it for some and not others, I stick to no-one.

Sadly 'this pleasant x' is still taught. It amuses me to see it on a letter for a manipulative shit who has told a pack of lies in clinic.

BTW I am sure you are delightful