Effective communication is now generally acknowledged to be central to effective healthcare. It is no longer seen as an add-on extra; rather it is recognized by many as being at the heart of patient care – as playing a pivotal role. As Kreps et al. (1998) noted, communication is pervasive in creating, gathering and sharing health information. It is a central human process that enables individual and collective adaptation to health risks at many different levels (Kreps, 2003).