On the merits of writing to the next of kin after the death of your patient: an Australian perspective

The Medical Journal of Australia ISSN: 0025729X 16 April 2007 186 8 425-425 ©The Medical Journal of Australia 2007 www.mja.com.au Personal Perspective However, unlike my father, who was a solo gener initially in the country and later in Brisbane, I am u being cut off from the local community in which pa and my mother, who practised with him as a nur patient’s whole family, the parish priest, and the n children and dogs, not to mention their full addre three generations pass through their surgery. t h th tho I as long been my practice to write a letter of condolence to e next of kin of any patient of mine who has died. As a racic and sleep physician, I share a practice with my wife (a psychiatrist) in rooms attached to a private city hospital. I rarely see patients in their own environment, as most come from outlying suburbs or provincial towns. Nevertheless, I get to know many patients quite well, sometimes over a period of many years. al practitioner nfortunate in tients live. He se, knew the ames of their ss. They saw