"Use updated terms"

My brother phoned 111 today as his son has suspected appendicitis. The call handler asked him where his nearest 'Casualty' unit was. Without wanting to be rude, he said it was Glasgow Royal Infirmary. The call handler who I believe was a nurse then said, that he could take him to Yorkhill Hospital if he wanted.

I would be grateful if you could advised your staff to use updated terms rather than ones that were last used in the 1980s. I work in an Emergency Department and it has never been called 'casualty' since I started training 20 years ago. It used to be called 'Accident and Emergency', but this term has also fallen out of use and is being replaced by 'Emergency Department'. All signs in the hospital are for Emergency Department [A&E]. The name of the hospital has also changed to the Royal Hospital for Children Glasgow.

My main concern with the call handler using such outdated terms as these is that her knowledge could also reflects this (i.e. is 20 years out of date).

Other people may also be confused looking for signs for a department name that no longer exists.

A lack of use of up to date terms make staff look and sound out of touch, which does not inspire confidence in service users, as reflected in my brother's telephone call to me after his discussion with 111 today.