Doctors issue warning over misuse of slang
BMJ 2003; 327 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.327.7411.360-f (Published 14 August 2003) Cite this as: BMJ 2003;327:360All rapid responses
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So what is the real issue? Surely an acronym in itself is not the
problem. PUO is PUO. What is being attacked is the right - nay the
necessity - to express truthfully what has occurred. That OD of 6 valium
and 2 pints should be TTFO. Especially when s/he has been verbally
agressive to the old biddy with palpitations sitting next to her. She may
be a gomere, but it was both totally appropriate to issue the TTFO, and
correct to document it as such.
PC? Nothing more than the licence to insult in pleasing language.
Probably in triplicate and 2 sides of a page. If I had my way, we would
arrest every PC demagogue and put them together with their lawyers in a
very very long A+E queue with a few "clients" who have not been TTFO.
Competing interests:
I am a doctor
Competing interests: No competing interests
Sir'
The restriction of creativity caused by fear of litigation is yet another
disincentive to a career in medicine. The oft unstated but constant
warning seems to be that what happens in the USA will eventually, through
fear of lawsuit, polute our creative juices. The time has passed where we
need to fear this contagion as we are now outdoing the USA.
I was recently accused of negligence in a lawsuit that accused me of
being responsible for the 'trauma' (PTSD) inflicted upon an approved
social worker who had to witness a patients' attempt to take my life. The
case was that I should have known that this patient would have acted in
this way. Needless to say the case, which took two years to come to
court, was decided in my favour with the Judge stating "I reject the
approach of Dr. ______" (the claumint's psychiatric hired gun), with
further critical remarks relating to this doctor's 'professional' opinion
.
This category of case is known in the USA a a 'mental-mental' case,
meaning a case whereby the supposed victim of the 'trauma' experienced
injury as a result of witnessing anothers experience of mental trauma. In
eleven of the US states such cases are not even allowed to progress to
court as thier basic premise is rejected. In this country we have gone
beyond the US position in allowing these frivolous cases to be brought.
We need no longer fear the emergence of ambulance chasing, avaricious
and immoral litigators in the UK; they are here in force and now leading
the way down thier rat infested alley feeding voraciously, on the scraps of honest doctors,
already precarious existences.
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests
What fun medical students have - it's surprising there is such a
shortage of medics. Perhaps too many see themselves a stand up comics
rather than doctors.
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests
One More
Thanks to television, we gere in the US are familiar with another
medical acronym -
GOMER - Get Out Of My Emergency Room
applied mostly to people who make up some sort of complaint so they
can get to talk to someone - and unfortunately waste a lot of time of
already harassed medical personnel in trauma centers
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests