OET Discharge Letter to A General Practitioner (GP) for A Patient Recovering from Pneumonia

Writing skills in English are very important if you are a medical professional planning to immigrate to an English-speaking country. There are many medical documents that you have to write as a medical professional, like transfer letters, referral letters and discharge letters. In this blog, we will learn how to write an OET discharge letter to a general practitioner for a patient recovering from pneumonia.

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OET Discharge Letter for A Patient Recovering from Pneumonia: Introduction

A discharge letter is a brief medical review of a patient’s hospitalization and treatment. It is usually written by a doctor or a nurse from the ward. This letter should contain all the relevant details in an understandable and brief format. A good discharge letter should contain all the information given below.

• Reason for admission
• Diagnosis
• Follow-up and management plan
• Medication changes
• Reasons for medication changes
• GP actions, investigations, results and treatment
• Details of discharging physician
• Information and instructions provided to the patient
• Tests or procedures performed
• The results of said tests and procedures

Sharing accurate and relevant information in a discharge letter is crucial for patient safety and failure in it may cause many issues, like a patient requiring a re-admission. Many things makes a discharge letter unsatisfactory. Some of them are given below.

• Insufficient and incomplete information
• Inaccuracies
• Unclear follow-up plans
• Insufficient medication information
• Delayed letter delivery
• General communication gaps
• Lack of patient-centeredness (for example the discharge letter is dense with medical jargon)

Missing to add relevant information to discharge paperwork can result in clinical care errors. It can also dampen the patient’s understanding of what happened to them while being in the hospital. Failing to write a good discharge letter is wasting of a good communication opportunity that is essential for safe patient to transition into the community environment. So, it is essential to learn how to write a good discharge letter if you want to get a good score in your OET.  Let us learn the structure of an OET letter and the rules that you need to follow while writing them by looking at a sample OET discharge letter to a general practitioner for a patient recovering from pneumonia.

OET Discharge Letter to A General Practitioner for A Patient Recovering from Pneumonia

The first thing that is required before writing a discharge letter is reading the case note and giving the OET writing task thoroughly. Let us start by reading the case note of a pneumonia patient.

Case Note

Holy Robert is a forty-five-year-old man with pneumonia.

Patient Details

• Name: Holy Robert
• Date of Birth (DOB): 19^th January 1980 (45 years)
• Gender: Female

Social History

• Accountant
• Married
• Husband working as a high school teacher
• Good social circle and involved in neighbourhood activities.
• Three children in school

Substance Intake

Social drinker

Allergies

• Dust mites
• Pollen

Family History

• Mother suffered from diabetes
• Father passed away due to lung cancer
• One of the brothers has diabetes

Medical History

• Hypertension and hypercholesterolaemia (diagnosed in 2020)
• COPD (since 2020)

10/02/2025

• Temperature: 38.9-degree Celsius
• Blood pressure: 134/86 mmHg
• Pulse rate: 120 beats/ min
• Respiratory rate: 26 breaths/min
• SpO2: 92% without supplemental oxygen
• Was feverish and had a cough
• Unwell for 2 weeks
• Decided to see the GP when felt breathlessness
• Colour of sputum: green (specimen collected for culturing)
• She was lethargic but oriented
• Chest x-ray showed extensive infiltration of infection throughout RLL

Diagnosis

• Acute pneumonia (RLL pneumonia)
• Auscultated coarse crackles are present in the right lower lobe of the lung.

Plan

• More effort in avoiding allergens from the home environment
• Clearing the airways
• Administration of antibiotics
• Atorvastatin PO 10 mg
• Atenolol PO 50mg
• Spiriva inhaler (2 inhalations) in 24 hours.
• Salbutamol inhaler (only if required)
• Good nutrition and fluid intake encouraged

Medical Progress

• Inflammatory markers reduced
• Not fatigued all the time anymore
• Coughing frequency reduced
• Sputum colour returns to normal
• Overall progress

Provider Information

Dr Anita Coleman

Respiratory specialist

Novel Chest Hospital

Contact info: 9XXXXXXXX

Read this case note very well and outline the letter in your mind before drafting it.

Key Information to Include in a Discharge Letter for Pneumonia

Now we know what the case note of a pneumonia patient will look like; we will learn the structure of an OET discharge letter so that we can draft the OET discharge letter to a general practitioner for a patient recovering from pneumonia. The structure of an OET discharge letter is explained step by step below.

Part 1: Date, Adress and Other Things

The beginning part of a discharge letter should contain important details like the date on which the letter is written, the name and designation of the addressee, their address, a greeting and a reference line.

• We should write the date in date/ month/ year format.
• The recipient line should contain the full official name of the patient their age if given and date of birth.
• You can interchange the order of date and recipient’s address with any issues.
• Similarly, you can interchange the order of reference line and greeting without any problem.

Part 2: Introduction

In this part, we give the full name and title of the patient and then introduce the medical complaint they had and the general purpose of writing this letter.

• Read the writing task thoroughly to get a good idea of the purpose of writing the said letter.
• This reason should be apparent immediately to the reader.
• Excluding the reason will impact your test score negatively.
• We should use the keyword ‘discharge’ to show that the patient is going back to their residential location.
• Avoid irrelevant info that obscures the purpose of the letter or confuses the reader.
• The introduction must be brief and clear.

Part 3: Paragraph 1 of Body

In this paragraph, we will discuss the reasons behind the medical admission.

• First, read the medical history of the patient in the case notes and notice relevant details.
• Avoid irrelevant details like social history, marital status, next of kin etc.
• Use surname with proper title where the patient’s name is coming first. Never use pronouns in the beginning sentence of a paragraph.
• Use past tense as we are discussing the patient’s condition at the time of admission.

Part 4: Paragraph 2 of Body

This section discusses the care received by the patient.

• Refer to the sections like nursing management, plan or diagnosis to get information on this.
• Here too, use past tense as the patient already received this care in hospital.

Part 5: Paragraph 3 of Body

This is where we write about the medical progress made by the patient before their discharge was decided.

• Write the sentence here in the present tense as the patient is being discharged currently.
• Use the word currently if the correct date of discharge is not provided.

Part 6: Conclusion

Here is where we discuss the expected actions a caretaker has to perform.

• Give an introductory phrase to connect the patient’s previous condition to present care.
• The tone should be polite and formal
• Avoid capitalising names of the generic drugs

Part 7: Closing Sentence

This sentence will not be counted in the total word count of the letter. But not writing one can impact your mark negatively.

• A normal closing sentence will be about asking the recipient to get back to the writer in case of any doubt.
• Avoid informal phrases or words but don’t be overpolite.

Part 8: Complimentary Close

It is important to use appropriate salutations at the end of the letter.

• Use yours sincerely if the name of the writer is given.
• Use yours faithfully if the name of the writer is not given.
• Writer the designation and the hospital address of the writer after their name if given in the writing task.
• Leave one blank space between all the sections.

The structure of an OET discharge letter is as discussed above. Remember the rules and tips above while practising your OET writing exercise.

OET Discharge Letter for A Patient Recovering from Pneumonia: Example

Now that you know the structure of an OET discharge letter, we will write our sample OET discharge letter to a general practitioner for a patient recovering from pneumonia.

30 January 2025

Jessy James

Home Nurse

Home care nursing services

103 Lightdown Lane

Newtown

Dear Nurse James

Re: Holy Robert, DOB: 19th January 1980 (45 years)

I am writing this letter regarding Ms Holy Robert, who was admitted on 10/02/2025 due to pneumonia. She is being discharged from the hospital and is coming into your care from tomorrow.

At the time of admission, Ms Robert had breathlessness, fever, coughing and green-coloured sputum. She was already sick for two weeks before admission. Even though lethargic, she was oriented.

Chest x-ray showed infection in the Right lower lobe of the lung. Antibiotics and inhalers were administered to Ms. Roberts. She was also encouraged to follow a proper diet and increase fluid intake. She was also advised to be more careful about contact with allergens in the future.

Currently, Ms. Robert has made good overall progress. Her sputum colour has returned to normal; she is not fatigued all the time anymore and there is a significant reduction in the frequency of coughing. The number of inflammatory markers in tests has also reduced.

In your care, it would be appreciated if could provide Ms. Robert with good nutrition as well as an allergen-free environment. Use inhalers only if necessary and ensure that she will not exceed the daily dose.

Feel free to contact me in case of any doubts.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Anita Coleman

Respiratory specialist

Novel Chest Hospital

OET Discharge Letter PDF

The OET discharge letter to a general practitioner for a patient recovering from pneumonia provided above is added here in a downloadable PDF format for your convenience.

Click here to download the OET discharge letter PDF for a patient recovering from pneumonia!

Tips for Writing OET Discharge Letter for Nurses

The discharge letter written by a nurse is not much different than one written by any other medical professional. Only the writer’s designation part changes. The rules and structure are just the same. You should follow some general rules while writing an OET discharge letter. They are listed below.

• Please decide on British or American spelling before starting writing and stick to it throughout the letter. Mixing styles can affect marks negatively.
• Avoid using (my, a, this, the,) ___patient as it is impolite.
• Do not use short forms that are usually used in case notes. They might make the tone less formal.

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OET Discharge Letter for A Patient Recovering from Pneumonia: Conclusion

Writing an OET discharge letter requires good writing skills and careful attention to detail. You can write a comprehensive and well-structured OET discharge letter to a general practitioner for a patient recovering from pneumonia if you follow the guidelines provided in this article. If you follow the steps discussed in this blog then your letter will be good and will be able to convey all the necessary details to the reader. The key to improving your writing skills is practice. Practise more using the writing tasks offered by your mentors in Entri to ace your coming OET exam. Start learning today!