Every year, hundreds of thousands of letters are sent out to people in Norfolk by post or email with information about their health and care.

But how understandable are they? Are they clear, concise, and informative?

We want to find examples of those which we call a ‘Mail Fail.’.

This is where the information is not clear, there is too much jargon, or it is difficult to understand.

We would like you to submit any examples to us, together with your feedback about how you feel they could be written or communicated in a better way. 

Please read the information below before submitting anything.

You can then click the button at the bottom of the page to send examples.

Remember

Before sending us anything, please make sure you have removed any personal information from the letter. 

This includes:

  • Your name
  • Address
  • Age
  • Any medical record numbers
  • Dates of birth
  • Email addresses
  • Any other personally identifiable information

There are different ways of doing this.

Scanning

If you are scanning in the document, please use the Adobe Acrobat Redact tool to remove any personal details from the attachment. You can find full details of how to do that at https://www.adobe.com/uk/acrobat/resources/how-to-redact-a-pdf.html

If you have the DocuSign program on your computer, you can also use a redaction tool in it to remove content.

Google Chrome has a tool called Redacted which you can download and add to your computer, and that can help you hide personal details.

Send a photograph

If you are photographing the letter and sending it to us, please ensure you only send sentences which will not identify you in any way.

Sending a paper example

You can send us a photocopy of an original letter to Mail Fail, c/o John Bultitude, Healthwatch Norfolk, Suite 6, The Old Dairy, Elm Farm, Norwich Common, Wymondham, NR18 0SW.

Please use a pen to strike through any information on any documents from a health or care provider which you send.

We will need a contact email address or telephone number with any letter that is submitted. This is for internal use only and means we can get in touch if we need to clarify any information about your submission.

Send us your example

All the feedback we receive will then be analysed and a report published with our findings.

You can watch a video with more information about the project below.

You can watch a subtitled version of the video below.