Doctors told to ditch Latin and use ‘plain English’

BBC: Doctors are being told to adopt a new policy of writing letters that are easier for patients to understand.
The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges says too often correspondence contains complex medical jargon rather than plain and simple English.
Using the phrase “twice daily” to explain the dosing of a medicine is better than the Latin abbreviation “bd”, for example.
Patients should ask their local hospital to comply, the academy says.
The Please Write to Me initiative is aimed mainly at doctors working in outpatient clinics, although it is best practice for all clinicians who need to write clinical letters.Doctors are being asked to write directly to patients, rather than sending them a copy of a letter penned to their GP.
The academy says this should help avoid blunders or offence caused by writing about patients in the third person.It cites the example of a surgeon branded sexist after praising a father for “manfully stepping in” to take his daughter to a hospital appointment when his wife was too ill.
Another consideration is the tone of the letter. A familiar style, such as: “It was a pleasure to meet you and your husband for the first time,” might sometimes be appropriate – but at other times a more distant or formal style might be appreciated, say the guidelines.Doctors are asked to avoid potentially stigmatising words: “‘You have diabetes,’ is better than ‘You are diabetic.’
“They should think about softening the impact of potentially sensitive information by using a more non-committal style, as with: “During the examination, the tremor and stiffness in your right arm suggest that you have Parkinson’s disease.”