sarawilcox
commented
4 years ago At the January 2020 Style Council meeting, we agreed to add the following to the Style Guide, drawing on experience and research from teams across NHS.UK and NHS 111 online:
GP A GP We use "a GP" (rather than "your GP") when we're advising people to get medical advice, care or treatment, for example in a care card [link]. This is particularly important when the user may need urgent care or to act out of hours.
Not all users are registered with a GP or have a regular GP. We use “a GP” to emphasise that users should get help and that it doesn't matter which GP they see.
Once we’ve used “a GP”, we follow up with “the GP”. For example: “Talk to a GP about your condition. The GP might suggest...”
Your GP We use "your GP" when the user is likely to be under a GP's ongoing care, for example, for a condition like diabetes or in the context of follow-up care.
We also use "your GP" rather than "a GP" in a transactional journey, such as NHS 111 online, where we have information about the user and we are referring them to their GP during office hours.
Doctor We mostly use “GP”. We use "doctor" when someone might see a GP, a specialist or consultant, in a surgery, hospital or clinic setting. We also use “a doctor” when we’re writing about healthcare abroad.
We use "your doctor" when we’re writing about follow-up or ongoing care with a health professional, for example, when a doctor is prescribing and monitoring medicine.
We use phrases like:
- "talk with your doctor"
- “follow your doctor’s instructions”
Approved by clinicians. Ready to publish.
amyhupe
The content style guide currently says: Use "a GP" rather than "your GP" because people won't always be able to see a particular GP.
There seems to be a lot of consensus around this but some people think whichever GP people see is "your GP" and that "your" is friendlier.
There is a Jira ticket for this issue: SS-606. See also GitHub issue on health professionals and specialists at: #80