YP Letters: Trust issue at doctors' reception

From: Katherine Murphy, Chief Executive, The Patients Association.
GP surgeries have come under criticism for asking too many questions. Do you agree?GP surgeries have come under criticism for asking too many questions. Do you agree?
GP surgeries have come under criticism for asking too many questions. Do you agree?

PATIENTS are naturally very sensitive to sharing their personal health information with a receptionist who is not medically trained (The Yorkshire Post, October 11).

While receptionists are also bound by confidentiality clauses, I think there is a perception that they aren’t and subsequently people are very cautious about discussing symptoms with a receptionist.

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Moreover, there is a unique trust built up between nurses and doctors and their patients and so people feel more at ease discussing private and confidential matters with them.

Nobody enjoys being ill and many people will put off getting an appointment, but this finding is particularly worrying as it suggests that those who have the confidence to phone their GP surgery are not getting their point across effectively to the receptionists, while others are being put off phoning altogether.

This is troubling because early diagnosis is key to getting better. Early diagnosis of cancer, for example, could be the difference between life and death.

Receptionists are an important and integral part of the community health team, and so breaking down barriers is a crucial part of improving the patient experience.

From: Jordan Scudamore, Yeadon.

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I TOTALLY agree with the criticism of receptionists at GP surgeries – you should not have to discuss your symptoms in front of all and sundry. What happened to patient confidentiality?

Barriers to mental health

From: Terry Maunder, Kirkstall, Leeds.

I APPLAUD your editorial comment about mental health and mental illness (The Yorkshire Post, October 10).

Sadly, society needs to have people or issues to stigmatise in the sense that this has a direct function for society as it reinforces what kind of behaviour is acceptable.

Certain sociologists 
argue that mental illness is a form of deviance in that it threatens social stability and 
that people with certain 
thought patterns or mood changes need to be hospitalised and placed under control, reinforcing the idea that 
mental health problems are illnesses that require medical treatment.

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These are some of the reasons why stigma is so hard to reduce.

I once nursed someone who believed Martians had taken 
over the planet and that he 
had been put in a mental hospital and diagnosed as “schizophrenic” because the panic caused by him revealing this fact would be too hard to control.

People have been incarcerated in institutions all over the world for having ideas that are not acceptable or threatening to society.

While it is important to educate and illuminate 
people about mental health and mental illness, it is also important to recognise these social barriers – they are hard to break.

Cycle trail of broken glass

From: A Hague, Bellbrook Grove, Leeds.

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WHILE cycling home from Ilkley this weekend, I had to stop three times from Headingley to Leeds University to wipe my tyres where glass was broken to smithereens in the cycle lane.

Could this be blamed on students enjoying themselves on a night out drinking (Andrew Vine, The Yorkshire Post, October 11)?

I kicked the glass to the edge, but much of it was trapped in the gaps in the surface.

I still can’t see what joy some people get from destructive behaviour.

From: Peter Weatherhead, Appletreewick.

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THE cycling fraternity still irritatingly carry on calling every hill in the Dales the ‘Cote de’, as in ‘Cote de Greenhow Hill’ (The Yorkshire Post, October 11), so how about reviving the RAC Rally in ‘Les Forêts de Yorkshire’?

Train for cash drain

From: Martin J Phillips, Cookridge.

THE predicted £50bn economic disparity between Leeds and London will be much greater should HS2 come to fruition. Despite Government claims, the whole point of HS2 is to take wealth from the north to London.

From: Mavis Harrison, Leeds

ON a dreary Saturday evening, skipping channels on TV, I thought I would give Railway Nation on BBC2 a glance.

Having a ‘nosy’ into modern commuters’ lives, and those who work on the trains, it was compelling viewing right down the line. Well done to BBC2.

Anti-social media storm

From: Hilary Andrews, Leeds.

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WITH all the fuss about suspected racism in Strictly Come Dancing, it seems that Twitter, Facebook and Instagram seem to be media for spreading an unwelcome climate of hatred in this country. We are normally so tolerant. What could be the cause of this phenomenon?

Pointless act by Sir Cliff

From: Jean Wade, Worksop.

I ALSO share the disgust that John Jewitt feels regarding Sir Cliff Richard’s decision to sue the BBC and South Yorkshire Police (The Yorkshire Post, October 11). I fail to see how money can compensate in such cases.

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