Need I spell it out to you?

Doctors, of course, know all about the need to be clear, accurate and understandable. But please do also remember that fact when dictating to your medical secretary, pleads Stephanie Carmichael-Drage.

With the growing use of outsourced and online services in healthcare, the relationship between the clinician and their secretarial support is often more distant and can seem impersonal when compared to the past.

There is less opportunity now for each side to learn the ways of the other and adapt to their needs and those of the practice.

This may be less than ideal in some respects, but it is, in fact, a consequence of modern healthcare, so we had better get used to it.