Improving discharge summaries from hospital with a brief recommendation text box: results from a nationwide survey

Many thanks for sharing the Danish views regarding this topic. Most GPs in England will agree the workload being faced by us is becoming more and more unbearable. Practices are trying to find more efficient methods in dealing with the workload and prioritising the tasks so a clinician's limited time can be better utilised. One example of this is a move away from clinicians reviewing all clinical documents sent in. Instead they are reviewed by a member of the administration team, who works to an algorithm to code data and forwards documents only which require clinician review.

This requires discharge letters to be clear about what they want a GP to do, and having a dedicated space within that letter would make it easier to find every time. If a standardised template could also be adopted by specialty clinics for their outpatient letters, it would be extremely helpful.

A collaborative approach between the local hospital and primary care representatives would be beneficial to achieve a standardised template to safely transfer requests.