Copying patients in is not as simple as it seems

doi:10.1136/bmj.a2687

Published 10 December 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a2687
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a2687

Letters

Copying letters to patients

Copying patients in is not as simple as it seems

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Richards advocates copying patients into all correspondenceon the grounds of improving health literacy,¹ but a sizeableminority of people in the UK have general literacy problemsand are unlikely to benefit.²

As currently written, many letters from hospitals are difficultfor patients to understand. My colleagues and I have had toexplain to alarmed and bewildered patients who have receivedcopies of their correspondence the meaning of phrases such as"the benefits of IOL may be limited because of the presenceof incurable dry AMD [translation at the bottom of the letter]."It is not difficult to see why patients with several chronicconditions may erroneously interpret such information in theworst possible way, or even as a terminal prognosis.

Some patients will not want confidential details of their medicalhistory entrusted to the postal service, or the risk that theymight be viewed by other family members. Patients . . . [Full text of this article]

Brian McKinstry, reader¹

¹ Primary Care Research, Division of Community Health Sciences: General Practice Section, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH8 9DR

brian.mckinstry@ed.ac.uk