A patient advocate wants to strike the term “frequent-flyer”, amongst others:
Mr Cayton, the national director for patients and the public, said of the term frequent flyers: “It implies that somehow these people want regular trips to hospital, that they are collecting points, that they enjoy the health and life-threatening roundabout of continual admission, treatment and discharge.”
Other phrases, such as bed-blockers, shifted the blame from the NHS to the patient, and further examples of labels included referring to those who do not turn up for appointments as “DNAs”.
