Immediate psychiatric discharge letters by fax

Much psychiatric care is provided outside the hospital setting. It is impor tant for general practitioners (GPs) to have available information of good quality, provided promptly, after patients' discharges from in-patient psyc hiatric care to enable them to provide a high standard of follow-up care. I n order to assess the value of handwritten Immediate Discharge Letters sent by fax we undertook a postal questionnaire survey of GPs, and examined a p roportion of the clinical notes relating to 160 patients who between Januar y and March 1998 had been discharged from in-patient care in the psychiatry admission wards at Crichton Royal Hospital, Dumfries. We found that struct ured letters, hand-written on a patient's discharge from in-patient status were generally valued by GPs as was their transmission by fax. Though certa in deficiencies were confirmed in their completion, they are of value pendi ng the arrival of a more definitive final discharge summary. We conclude th at the continued use of such immediate discharge letters in psychiatry and their continued transmission by fax is justified.