© 2003 BMJ Publishing Group & Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health
LEADING ARTICLE
Doctor-patient communication
"Stay off the greens"
1 Consultant Child and Adolescent Neurologist, Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, Pendlebury, Manchester M27 4HA, UK
2 Visiting Professor in Applied Psychology, School of Health, Liverpool John Moores University, 79 Tithebarn Street, Liverpool L2 2ER, UK
Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr R Newton, Consultant Child and Adolescent Neurologist, Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, Pendlebury, Manchester M27 4HA;
Richard.Newton@cmmc.nhs.uk
Encouraging consultation questions
Keywords: consultation; patient information; questions
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
There is great power in the spoken word and doctors should beware misunderstandings. The first author spent some time in general practice. On a home visit to a man in bed with pneumonia he was bidding farewell to the man’s wife at the front door when she said, "He is still off the greens doctor". The first author did not understand what she meant. She explained that 20 years previously her husband had had a bout of diarrhoea and vomiting. The senior partner had advised that he should "stay off the greens"—presumably for a short period. For the 20 years that followed not one green leaf had passed this man’s lips. Arguably, the most powerful medical intervention is the spoken word, yet how we communicate with families is little studied.
The hospital clinic is the active point of contact between families, their children, and local paediatric services. From
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Arch. Dis. Child. 2003 88: 275.[Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]
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