Study of discharge communications from hospital doctors to an inner London general practice.

In inner London patients are now being discharged from hospital earlier to be cared for by the community services. In this study the general practitioners in one inner London practice were asked to evaluate discharge communications from hospital doctors. The general practitioners were dissatisfied with the delay in receiving over one third of the letters and with the content of almost a fifth. They also felt that delay and lack of detail affected their management in 24% of cases. They would have liked more information in the letters, particularly about drug regimens. Some suggestions for improvement in written discharge communications are made.