09.29.05
Dear Dr…………
Let me set the scene; you are referred by your doctor to your local hospital to be seen by a specialist. Who do you think is responsible for producing the letter following the consultation / operation / investigation? Well in my local hospital, apparently the consultant’s oral dictation is sent to the far east and the letters typed and returned for the previously highly valued secretary to check. Not surprisingly these secretaries are feeling seriously undervalued.
Having worked as a specialist nurse in that particular NHS trust I know that it is not always easy to understand what is being said during the dictation, I have helped the secretary in our department to work out using the notes exactly what the doctor is trying to say. The trouble is that those trying to cut costs by sending work to other countries in this way are trying to save money without seeing the full value of what exactly a medical secretary does. Often they are the main contact for a department, they know where various team members are at any time, they act as a way for patients to maintain contact with their doctor, they are in touch with GPs and other doctors over appointments. What I can say is that they do not just type letters.
I am not against cost effectiveness, what I am against is the down right devaluation of an important, but often hidden role. What we need now however, is the doctors for whom these ladies work standing up for them; after all they are the ones, who will probably suffer most. They might one day have to book their own appointments, a typist in India is not going to do that!
Ok so she isn’t the modern secretary, but those dictaphone machines were in use quite recently, I kid you not!
