Intended for healthcare professionals
Monk’s Moment

How things have changed

Barry Monk

MA FRCP 
Consultant Dermatologist
BMI The Manor Hospital, Bedfordshire

In the fifty years since I qualified, the way that we practiced medicine has certainly changed. GP referral letters were short and nearly always handwritten, with rather variable standards of legibility. There was definitely a certain art in writing a referral so that it caught the hospital consultant’s attention.

Dermatology in practice 2026; 32(1): 18–18
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