Labour's NHS-speak spin is demeaning to patients
Terms such as "frequent flyers" and "bed-blockers", used by Labour ministers and NHS staff to describe patients, are demeaning, the patients' tsar says. Harry Cayton said such negative words shifted blame to patients and should be avoided, the Royal Society of Medicine journal said.
Mr Cayton, the national director for patients and the public, said of the term frequent flyers: "It implies that somehow these people want regular trips to hospital, that they are collecting points, that they enjoy the health and life-threatening roundabout of continual admission, treatment and discharge."
Other phrases, such as bed-blockers, shifted the blame from the NHS to the patient, and further examples of labels included referring to those who do not turn up for appointments as "DNAs". He also attacked the use of words like "dement" to describe somebody with Alzheimer's disease.
He added: "Labelling people in this way is the most common way in which the NHS dehumanises those it is supposed to care for."
He said most of the language was used to describe elderly people, possibly reflecting an ageist culture.
"Older people generally use the health service most often but they are also sometimes the least able to speak up for themselves, the most vulnerable."
Mr Cayton said he understood that health workers needed to create distance due to the stresses of the job, but added they should find other ways of achieving that distance.
The full reviews can be found at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5404248.stm
and
http://www.jrsm.org/cgi/content/full/99/10/484
Mr Cayton, the national director for patients and the public, said of the term frequent flyers: "It implies that somehow these people want regular trips to hospital, that they are collecting points, that they enjoy the health and life-threatening roundabout of continual admission, treatment and discharge."
Other phrases, such as bed-blockers, shifted the blame from the NHS to the patient, and further examples of labels included referring to those who do not turn up for appointments as "DNAs". He also attacked the use of words like "dement" to describe somebody with Alzheimer's disease.
He added: "Labelling people in this way is the most common way in which the NHS dehumanises those it is supposed to care for."
He said most of the language was used to describe elderly people, possibly reflecting an ageist culture.
"Older people generally use the health service most often but they are also sometimes the least able to speak up for themselves, the most vulnerable."
Mr Cayton said he understood that health workers needed to create distance due to the stresses of the job, but added they should find other ways of achieving that distance.
The full reviews can be found at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5404248.stm
and
http://www.jrsm.org/cgi/content/full/99/10/484
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