Ananova:

A leading doctor has explained some of the colourful slang used by staff on Britain’s hospital wards.

Young doctors have developed their own dictionary of secret terms for patients and colleagues, reports the Daily Telegraph.

They include a 'Hasselhoff', for a patient who gives doctors in accident and emergency a bizarre explanation for their injury.

It was coined after former Baywatch actor David Hasselhoff said last year that he had hit his head on a chandelier while shaving.

A disco biscuit is an ecstasy tablet, while a Father Jack, after the drunken old priest in Father Ted, is a confused and elderly patient who constantly shouts and tries to get out of bed.

The dictionary of slang was compiled by a consultant in palliative medicine, Paul Keeley, of Glasgow Royal Informary.

He said: “It’s something I have picked up over the last few years from teaching junior doctors.

“I have always had an interest in language and I noticed that junior doctors seem to have picked up a whole vocabulary of language that older doctors like me don’t have.”

Other examples include blamestorming - a session of mutual recrimination in which a team tries to find someone to blame for an error.

A MacTilt describes how a Macmillan nurse tilts his or her head to convey sympathy while a Jack Bauer describes a doctor who is still up and working after 24 hours - after the lead character from the TV series 24.