Sussex Health and Care has banned staff from using the word "patients", telling doctors and nurses to instead refer to those in their care as "experts by experience", "customers" or "consumers".
The change is part of a new language guide produced after a two-year, taxpayer-funded investigation into how NHS staff speak to and about the people they treat. Bosses at the trust said the word "patients" had raised concerns that it was inappropriate and made people feel intimidated.
The guide also strikes out the word "normal", arguing it could alienate patients and should be replaced with "non-disabled person". Clinicians have also been told to avoid "assessment", "able-bodied" and "discharged".
In place of "discharged", the trust has settled on the phrase "warm handover". The experts behind the review argued the older terms, some of which have been used by medical professionals for decades, could be "uncomfortable, offensive or triggering".
The review also instructs paid staff to keep an eye on how colleagues speak in the workplace and to "challenge" them if they hear inappropriate language being used.
The findings are set out in a 26-page handbook, produced through a series of focus groups and workshops. "Language has power," the trust wrote. "It can help a person to feel understood, and validate their experiences, or could make them feel alienated and potentially cause harm."
Feedback gathered during the review found that the word "assessment" could make patients feel they were being judged on their ability to pass a hidden test, while "discharge" could feel very final.
New Terms for Mental Health Patients
The document, billed as a "guide to language for mental health", also addresses how staff describe patients who miss appointments. Contributors said patients should no longer be labelled "hard to reach" or "difficult to engage", and should instead be called "under-represented" or "under-served".
Contributors to the review also raised objections to the word "normal", saying they disliked the "label" and the potential stigma attached to a formal diagnosis, or the lack of one.
Autism and ADHD Language
The trust has also dropped the phrase "people with autism" in favour of "autistic people" or "people on the autism spectrum", after feedback that autistic people dislike person-first language.
By contrast, the guide says people with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder generally prefer to be described as "a person with ADHD".
Critics Accuse Trust of 'Woke' Overreach
The guidelines have drawn criticism, with some claiming the trust is prioritising the needs of non-English speakers over clear communication.
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'?"
He said the "constantly changing modern dialect" adopted by the NHS was putting growing numbers of medical staff at risk of unfair punishment for "not being fluent in woke-ish". "The result is that more and more NHS employees, particularly older employees, are finding themselves under investigation for being culturally insensitive," he added.
Trust's Response
A spokesperson for Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust told the Daily Mail: "This is a guide, not Trust policy. It was developed with people who use mental health services and staff to respond to feedback that certain language discouraged some from accessing NHS support."
Part of a Wider Pattern Across the NHS
The row comes just months after staff at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust were told to stop using traditional sayings such as "the early bird catches the worm", because they might not translate well across other cultures.
Earlier this year, King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in south London said staff could use the pronouns "xey/xem" at work, and urged colleagues to apologise if they used the "wrong" pronouns for one another, saying the move would help "create an inclusive environment and demonstrate inclusion in the workplace".
In 2024, the NHS was criticised over a menopause policy which stated that "not everyone who experiences menopause is a woman". Women's rights groups called the document "outrageous", warning it risked causing confusion and accusing the NHS of promoting an "activist agenda".
Campaigners also objected to the use of "non-sex language" such as "people affected by the menopause" rather than "women". Successive health secretaries have told the NHS to stop erasing women from its publications and to use sex-based language on health advice pages, including those covering cancers that affect only women.
NHS England had published a "National Menopause People Policy Framework" on its website, but later removed it, telling the Daily Mail it had been issued in error.
