Matt Morgan: Patients’ notes should be addressed to them

Working in intensive care, I’m spared the pain (or joy) of writing clinic letters. In fact, most of the writing I do in my work is communication between healthcare professionals rather than directly with patients or their families. However, as with so many other things, covid-19 has changed this.

Relatives have often been unable to visit even critically ill loved ones during the covid-19 pandemic. As a result, the memories of tough conversations that I normally carry around with me have morphed from the distressed faces of family members into the rubber keys on my office phone. This collection of numbers is the …