Writing to #patients?

3/2/19

I had the pleasure this week of joining the amazing Dr Arvind Nagra (do follow her on Twitter @arvnagra) at a great study day at Southampton entitled #Movingonup

We focused on moving from children’s services into adult care. There were great presentations that stimulated lively debate, yet one really challenged me, @CharlieTomson asked ‘are we writing directly to patients & copying in GPs?’

Despite guidance from Association of Medical Royal Colleges http://www.aomrc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Please_write_to_me_Guidance_010918.pdf it’s not happening routinely. Charlie (only his mum calls him Charles) outlined his approach, an understandable summary along with actions for the patient, GP and other relevant people, followed by next steps (see the simple template below from Charlie).

Twitter engaged with the conversation and @LiviBF summed up the impact of being written to beautifully ….

What do you think? Should we make writing to patients an #AlwaysEvent https://www.england.nhs.uk/always-events/

This great blog by @ChrisGrahamUK CEO at @pickereurope explores this further, thx Chris!

https://www.picker.org/news/blog/why-respecting-a-patient-by-writing-to-them-and-not-about-them-is-so-important/

Author: @kathevans2

I’m a Children’s Nurse who is passionate about improving healthcare and life with people who use services. I love getting out in the countryside or to the seaside to promote my mental health and well-being. On a journey to doing 100 marathons (slowly!) & part of team #NHS1000miles (new members always welcome!) I also love charity shopping, cooking and healthy eating too 😉 Sharing thoughts on a range of things that interest me. Comments, challenge, links to further thinking and research are most welcome. Learning and thinking together is always more fun! View all posts by @kathevans2