Editor—Medical historians in 50 years or more will surely read the discussion of copying letters to patients with amusement, or possibly horror.1 Here we are in the information century and most patients who see a doctor get nothing beyond a prescription to take away.
In my view, this and many other features of medicine are part of a cultural hangover from the development of hospital medicine in the 18th and 19th centuries. As places of high infection risk, hospitals were for the poor and illiterate, hence no point in writing the patients a letter or worrying too much about their convenience in setting appointments.
By way of contrast, lawyers have always dealt with the property owning classes and so writing to their clients, rather than only working face to face, was an appropriate and convenient way to do business. The use of letters and even the telephone by the medical profession, as part of the consulting process, still looks pretty Victorian.
Competing interests: None declared.
References
- 1.Correspondence. Copying letters to patients. BMJ 2003;327: 451. (24 August.) [Google Scholar]