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Copying letters to patients

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Peter Hughes
Peter Hughes*
Affiliation:
Springfield University Hospital, 61 Glenburnie Road, London SW17 7DJ
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Psychiatric Bulletin , Volume 28 , Issue 5 , May 2004 , pp. 183
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Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2004

I defy any psychiatrist to say that they have not changed the content or nature of their letters with the thought that their patient would be reading what they have written. The change may be conscious or, more interestingly, unconscious. This may reduce the transfer of information to a general practitioner, for example.

While copying letters is most commendable in many ways and well appreciated, I believe that it does fundamentally alter the subtleties of medical correspondence. This does not seem to be addressed in the studies I have seen to date. It is a problem.

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