When I started medical school, multiple people said to me that the medical jargon you need to learn during medical school is the equivalent of learning:-

a) a new language, or

b) seven thousand new words, or

c) other impressive feats of linguistic prowess

Whilst I’m sure none of these things are actually true, they sound great, and I’m not ashamed to admit that I’ll bust these anecdotes out to students / patients / family members when the opportunity presents itself. Me being able to pronounce choledocholithiasis and know what it means surely deserves praise and admiration. (As long as you don’t require too much of an explanation)

So, little wonder if patients find the world of medical jargon absolutely and completely bewildering. It’s a difficult job as a GP to straddle the worlds, using medical jargon in referral letter and conversations with partialist* colleagues, but plain world language to…