Referral Letters and Replies

Abstract

Can we do better? Consultants in referral hospitals regularly complain about the poor quality, or absence, of referral letters. This has been the subject of numerous journal articles. Equally, however, peripheral practitioners complain about the poor standard of responses received from these hospitals and the frequent lack of any reply letter. Consulting doctors often do not read referral letters, do not understand the problems of the patient outside the teaching hospital and do not keep the referring doctors up to date'. Using Medline searches, a review of the literature on this subject was conducted. The aim of this paper is to present a summary of the findings from the literature surveyed.