Letters

Tim Albert ('Getting the wind up', open space, page 29, 6 April) is quite right to lament the culture in which healthcare professionals appear unable to write concise, accessible English.

This culture extends to verbal communication with patients. They are frequently told what is wrong with them in terminology they do not understand. Or worse, they believe it to mean they have something wrong that is serious and will make them disabled.

All healthcare professionals have been guilty of this at some time. Just because we understand terms such as degenerative joint disease, spinal stenosis, malalignment, and arthritis it doesn't mean that patients do.

Come on, don't just write plain English - speak it, too.

Natalie Beswetherick Head of physiotherapy services Cheltenham General Hospital