What your doctors are writing about you behind your back

Have you ever wondered what your doctor is really thinking about you when you’re sitting in their office?

The truth is, the world of medicine has long been home to its own secret language – shorthand acronyms and slang that doctors use to communicate about patients to other healthcare staff, often behind their backs.

However, this is somewhat of a dying art, as today’s medical slang now largely exists in whispered conversations or informal notes.

These colloquialisms rarely make their way into a patient’s official records, because they’re often considered unethical and potentially offensive.

Also, using them could result in legal trouble for doctors or hospitals if patients discovered them and decided to pursue legal action.

Adam Fox, a collector of medical slang, once shared an example from one of his annual reports to the BBC.

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A practitioner had written “TTFO”, meaning “told to f**k off”, on a patient’s chart.

When asked about the entry in court, the practitioner had to pretend the initials stood for “to take fluids orally”.

Another reason for the decline in this sort of slang is that they may be confused with genuine medical terms, potentially leading to misunderstandings.