Fresh woke madness as NHS trust orders doctors and nurses to stop using word ‘normal’ as it may ‘alienate’ patients

AN NHS trust has told doctors and nurses to stop using the word “normal” – because it might make patients feel alienated. Woke chiefs at Sussex Health & Care ran a two-year study before demanding medical professionals drop clinical terms like “assessment” and “discharge” to avoid scaring anxious patients. An NHS trust has told doctors and nurses to stop using the word ‘normal’ Credit: Getty Woke chiefs at Sussex Health & Care demand docs drop the term because it might make patients feel alienated Credit: Alamy Paid workers and volunteers at hospitals and mental health clinics were told they should replace a simple “assessment” with a clunky “health and wellbeing discussion”. They also barred the words “able-bodied”, “stroke victim”, and “hard to reach”, and called for “discharge” to be renamed a “warm handover”. Sign up for the Health newsletter Thank you! Non-disabled people should also not be called “normal”, the guide adds. The bizarre demands were issued in a comprehensive guide to language put together after a two-year, taxpayer-funded project involving focus groups and workshops. Bosses even issued a warning that traditional medical jargon used by docs for decades could be “uncomfortable, offensive, triggering, or discriminating”. Experts reckon staff should even police their colleagues’ workplace language, instructing them to “challenge” co-workers if they overhear them using inappropriate language. Bosses wrote in the booklet: “Language has power. It can help a person to feel understood, and validate their experiences, or could make them feel alienated and potentially cause harm.” “Feedback was that the word ‘assessment’ can feel like a test you can pass or fail, or that you are being judged. Most read in Health “The word ‘discharge’ can feel very final – like the door is being closed on you. ‘If I need help again, how do I get back in?’” The guide told staff dealing with mental health that they could no longer describe patients who repeatedly skip appointments or ignore letters as “hard to reach” or “difficult to engage”. Saying patients were being “difficult” was also off-limits, with executives insisting it was described as “underrepresented” or “under-served”. Lord Young, leader of the Free Speech Union, told The Sun: “I can see the argument for not using a technical term like ‘myocardial infarction’ instead of heart attack, but ‘patient’? “Surely, everyone understands the word ‘patient’, including people who’ve just arrived in this country. “It feels like Sussex Health Care is prioritising the needs of non-English speakers over those of native speakers, which is a little unfair given that it’s UK citizens who fund the NHS through their taxes.” We previously told how a string of public bodies were forcing staff to abide by “inclusive” language rules. The City of Doncaster Council told social care staff they couldn’t describe themselves as “frontline workers” – because it implied they took part in war-style battles. The Sussex trust was asked to comment. Don’t use - Do use “Discharge” – “Warm handover” or “end of episode of support” “Assessment” – “Health and wellbeing discussion”, “Information gathering” or “Conversation” “Patient” – “Expert by experience” Comment now