to try to decipher the coded message on referrals?

[Reality]

DH's wisdom teeth letter said 'this pleasant gentleman', which I'm pretty sure is code for 'normal'.

My slightly eccentric but lovely aunt who has terminal cancer was thrilled to receive one the other describing her as 'this delighful lady'.

I KNOW they are coded, I just want to know what they mean. Can anyone shed any light?

Bog standard template letters. Database inserts your name, address, NHS no at top and the opening sentences are pre-determined. Bit of space at bottom to customise with individual info/results.

Ha! I got "young" :) "This otherwise healthy and fit YOUNG woman presents with extreme dehydration"

Did I mention "young" ( I'm 36 with partner two years younger who looks about seventeen , so I was keen on this one! :) )

Yabvvvvu because I thought that my consultant meant it when he referred to me as a "delightful lady". Hiding thread

I deal with a lot of patient letters, files and referrals, most of which I take no notice of, but some of which I do notice start with 'this rather difficult patient' or 'this extremely challenging individual'. However, if these referrals are to be believed, there are an awful lot of 'pleasant' and 'delightful' patients out there. A bog-standard referral TBH.

Doctors aren't supposed to make negative comments about their patients in correspondence any more - not least because patients now have the right to read their own notes under the FOI act. So I think they tend to be polite and stick to the facts.

But some old letters I've read contain some right shockers - really judgmental, rude and politically incorrect by today's standards.

Doctors used to use some real beauties though-
NFS = normal for Swindon, FLK = funny looking kid etc.
the pleasantries are just that; most patients are pleasant/delightful/lovely/

I did say most , didn't I?!

I got 'this young lady' when I broke my wrist.

I was 33, and torn between feeling patronised, and mightily chuffed. Chuffed won by a country mile.

I got 'pleasant lady' and wondered exactly the same. I guess it sounds better and more personable than 'this woman'!

I probably had bloody know it all scientist, with an even worse DH written in my antenatal notes.

I had a DF(who was a biochemistry post Doc), with a nasty chronic condition, who pretty much asked them to write 'has a brain' in his.

He was lovely, but eventually even his patience wore thin with dumbed down patient speak.

In the days before patients were allowed to see their medical records, Drs would often be quite rude about people. These days that has been replaced on the whole by meaningless pleasantries. The code is still sometimes implied by omission though. For example if the referrer usually puts this this pleasant gentleman and then sends a letter Dear mr x please see mr y for his recurrent rectal problems the gist is that mr y is a PITA
Gems I remember from the past include
This rather silly lady
This enormous woman who still hasn't lost any weight
FLK funny looking kid
NFN normal for Norfolk
Sure some others can add to this list.

I had "Young woman" last month! I'm 40! What did that mean then?

It's just a standard opening for medical letters - unfortunately. The 'code' theory is so much more interesting .

I used to be a Medical Secretary & have to type these letters. The best one I've come across is "Thank you for seeing this obnoxious fat man".

Lazy you're wrecking the thread!

Thank you for seeing this rude scrawny woman

Thank you for seeing this scraggly, torpid idiot.

May be urban myth but have definitely heard that TUBE stood for " totally unnecessary breast examination. " hope that is just apocryphal though!

I used to work in medical records ar a hospital that was treating the mother of the, then, deputy leader of one of the Big Two political parties. There was no secret code on her notes. Just a fucking big A4 note stating who her son was. She was never, ever kept waiting, if she had consecutive appointments in different clinics her notes were never missing as they'd be specially shipped between clinics, she only ever saw consultants never registrars. She was certainly given a glowing impression of her local NHS.

No code, sorry. Pleasant is just pleasant (or possibly middle class, 'people like us).
I never bother with meaningless pleasantries myself. You can't write anything negative these days as all the letters are copied to patients now (which is entirely correct) so they are much blander than in the bad old days.
NFN = normal for Norfolk ie inbred
FLK = funny looking kid, FLP = funny looking parents ie probably not a syndrome just unfortunate genetics!
In very old 1970s letters I have seen some horrible stuff eg 'this plain, rather inadequate girl'.
If I wish to convey that a consultation was very difficult I will put eg 'he/ she was hostile, defensive, guarded or even aggressive' but only if I can justify it and it serves a purpose for it to be recorded.

I've never been referred to in any remarkable sort of way. Now I'm worried that the absence of complimentary terms is the equivalent of a huge red flag...

'malingering slattern'

I think my DH would happily put that on a referral.

...not for me..some of his patients ha ha!

Velma this is a pet topic of mine. You have the right to see your notes under the Data protection act which gives you the right to see any information an organisation holds about you and obliges them to keep it safe.

The Freedom of Information Act is about pubic information. So things like reports, budgets etc produced by or refering to government bodies. If anyone released my medical notes under FOI I would be most unhappy: that is freeing them to be published. One of the reasons to not release data under FOI is because it is personal data under the DPA.

When starting university (1995) I was given my notes to hold before my booking-in appointment with the uni GP. Obviously I took the opportunity of the long wait to read the then-forbidden notes. My GP (from babyhood) had referred me, at 13, for period pains to a gynaecologist with the note, "she is the child of lesbian parents." I was so disappointed in Dr Bailey but very happy with the (female) consultant, who'd included in her reply that she didn't see what relevance my family had with regard to my condition.

Means middle class and not a nightmare patient.