Centre for Policy on Ageing



Sharing letters with patients : one year on — [Northumbria Healthcare NHS Trust experience]
Author(s)	Simon Eaton
Journal title	Geriatric Medicine, vol 35, no 9, September 2005
Pages	pp 21-25
Source	http://www.gerimed.co.uk
Keywords	General practitioners ; Communication ; Patients ; Attitude ; Northumberland.
Annotation	Since April 2004, patients have had the right to receive a copy of any letter written about them. As a follow-up to his review of this policy last year, the author discusses the experiences over the past year of implementation of this policy within Northumbria Healthcare NHS Trust. In this period, various efforts were taken to ascertain views, comments and concerns about the policy throughout the Trust and local primary care services. On the whole, implementation of this policy has been successful and considerably less problematic than anticipated. However, care needs to be taken though in the language used, and sensitivity needs to be employed when relaying new information or diagnosis. The major workload impact has been preparing and sending out the letters. (KJ/RH).
Accession Number	CPA-051025204 A
Classmark	QT6: U: LF: DP: 8NU
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.