ABSTRACT
Grice’s maxims give us a set of rules for conversational economy. The cooperative princi-ple is actually a bargain between agents that they will not waste each other’s time and that they will genuinely try to say what is needed. In healthcare, the stakes are higher because the resources of many individuals are thinly stretched, and time wasting or misleading behaviour will have a negative impact on the efficiency of clinical work and patient care.
