OET Transfer Letter for A Patient with A Fractured Leg to A Physiotherapy Unit for Rehabilitation

Writing skills are important in OET like any other English proficiency test. Have you ever had a fracture and needed to go to a physiotherapist for rehabilitation after taking the cast off? Have you seen a letter written by your orthopaedic doctor to the physiotherapy unit while transferring you there? This is a transfer letter. Such a letter is needed if a patient must change their location to continue their treatment and healing journey. Let us learn how to structure a transfer letter along with a sample OET Transfer Letter for a patient with a fractured leg to a physiotherapy unit for rehabilitation.

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OET Transfer Letter for A Patient to A Physiotherapy Unit: Introduction

Before moving to further details, let us learn what a transfer letter is. A transfer letter is a document that is addressed to a medical professional and written by another medical professional requesting further treatment, management or care after a change in a patient’s location. This means the patient was already undergoing treatment or investigations in a particular place/ hospital/ or department within a hospital and now is required to be transferred to another place/ hospital/ or department in the same hospital for continuing the treatment or investigations they are already undergoing.

A patient may need to change hospitals due to shifting their residential location. Sometimes a hospital might not have facilities to give some advanced level of care. Sometimes a patient might have to be moved to another department in the same hospital after they are out of danger and need some long-term care. In this case, we are learning to write an OET transfer letter for a patient with a fractured leg to a physiotherapy unit for rehabilitation.

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OET Transfer Letter for A Patient with A Fractured Leg to A Physiotherapy Unit for Rehabilitation

The first thing to do while writing an OET letter is to correctly read the case note and writing task. Let us look at the case note of a patient with a fractured leg.

Case Note

Robert Dave is a fifty-five-year-old man with a fractured left leg.

Patient Details

• Name: Robert Dave
• Date of Birth (DOB): 19^th January 1970 (55 years)
• Gender: Male

Social History

• Retired Policeman
• Very active with exercise and farming
• Married

Substance Intake

Nil

Allergies

• Penicillin
• Nuts

Family History

• Father of three children
• Mother suffered from arthritis
• Father had no bone-related injuries
• One of the brothers has arthritis

Medical History

• No previous history of injuries due to fall.
• PTSD (diagnosed in 2020)
• Hypertension (since 2020)

10/02/2025

• Temperature: 38.5-degree Celsius
• Blood pressure: 130/80
• Pulse rate: 80 beats/ min
• Respiratory rate: 25 breaths/min
• Vital signs are normal except for blood pressure
• The patient was conscious and cooperative during the examination
• Pain in the area of injury
• Very noticeable swelling in the area of injury
• Limited range of motion for the left leg. Pain on movement.

Diagnosis

• X-ray of left leg taken
• There was a fracture in the femur

Plan

• Immediate surgical intervention after preoperative assessment and regulation of hypertension.
• Pain medication given (ibuprofen)
• Antibiotic administration (Cefazolin)
• Calcium and vitamin D supplements
• Diuretic chlorthalidone (Hygroton) for hypertension
• Close monitoring of hypertension
• Postoperative physiotherapy for rehabilitation after healing
• Removal of suture and final appointment on 30/01/2025

Provider Information

Dr Anita Coleman

Orthopaedic surgeon

Novel Geriatric Hospital

Contact info: 9XXXXXXXX

Have you read the case note for the writing task thoroughly? Take notice of relevant facts and outline the transfer letter you are going to write.

Key Information to Include in a Transfer Letter for a Fractured Leg

It is important to have a very good understanding of the structure of the transfer letter before starting your OET letter writing practice. We will discuss the structure of the OET transfer letter step by step in this section.

Part 1: The Beginning

The OET transfer letter should always start with the date, recipient medical professional’s address, greeting and reference (RE) line.

• If the professional’s name is not given in the task just write their job title or designation before the address. For example respiratory specialists, community health nurses etc.
• RE line should contain the patient’s full name, date of birth and age if given.
• The date should be written in DD/MM/YY format.
• Interchanging the order of date and addressee’s details is acceptable
• Similarly interchanging the order of RE line and greeting is acceptable.

Part 2: Introduction

Here, we will discuss about the patient, their medical issue and the purpose of the letter immediately in a way that is apparent to the reader.

• Read the writing task thoroughly to identify the purpose.
• If the purpose is not discussed immediately, it will affect scores badly.
• The key word to use in a transfer letter to indicate the purpose is “transfer”. The phrase “thank you for accepting” can also be used.
• The introduction must be very brief immediately conveying the purpose to the reader.
• Avoid all secondary information that may hinder the objective of the introduction.
• But if the patient is planning a residential relocation, then mentioning this may give more clarity.
• If the patient is an adult, write full name with the title at first occurrence.

So, what we could say is that in the introduction a general description of needed action is given. A detailed explanation of the same will be given in the conclusion.

Part 3: First Paragraph of Body (Medical History)

This part aims to describe the medical history of the patient.  The following things are needed to be included.

• Year of diagnosis along with medical history
• Regular medications as well as their dosage
• Dietary requirements or restrictions if any.
• The general behaviour of the patient

Always make sure that the information is sequenced logically and according to their importance. There are some things that you need to be careful about while mentioning the medications too. They are:

• Make sure that you use the punctuation correctly while listing the names of medications along with their doses.
• Never capitalise the name of a generic drug. But if you are using brand names, capitalise accordingly.

Part 4: Second Paragraph of Body (Possible Complications)

If any possible complications exist, we have to discuss it here. Physical condition and recently identified complications (if there are any) are relevant.

Part 5: Third Paragraph of Body (Latest Information on Patient)

Here is where we will describe the relocation (if the patient is relocating) or any other latest info on the patient. If provided in case notes, we can also write who is taking care of them after relocation. But avoid repeating info or describing needed care in this paragraph.  Expected care or action should be mentioned in the conclusion.

Part 6: Conclusion (Expected Care by Reader)

After all the information in the previous paragraph conclude the letter by describing what is expected of the reader. Provide an introductory phrase to link the conclusion to patient complaints. Then make sure that the phrasing is not the same as the introductory sentence even though the same idea is discussed. Phrasing the same idea differently shows your proficiency in the language. Always remember to be polite and formal in the conclusion.

Part 7: Closing Sentence

The closing sentence will not be counted for the word count. So, there is not much worry about that. But not writing a closing sentence is a silly mistake that will negatively impact your scores. A normal closing sentence will be about encouraging the reader to contact the writer in case of emergencies or if in need of more information. The tone should be polite but not overly. Informal words and phrases must be avoided at all costs.

Part 8: Complimentary Close

Always remember to use correct salutations while closing the letter. You have to use ‘yours faithfully’ if the name of the writer is not given and ‘yours sincerely’ if the name of the writer is provided in the writing task question. Remember to write the professional designation and name of the organisation/ hospital they are working in if provided in case notes. Also, remember to leave a single blank space between each of the sections.

Tip for Writing OET Letters

Some tips for writing OET letters are provided below.

• Read the case note and writing task clearly and outline the letter before starting to draft.
• Using British or American spelling is acceptable. Just make sure that you use only one of them consistently throughout the letter.
• Do use phrases like (a/ the/ this/my) ___ patient. Such phrases are impolite.
• Group information logically. Don’t make the addressee to re-read to understand.
• Avoid irrelevant information (anything not relevant to the chief complaint and is not useful to the reader). It will be counterproductive and will confuse the reader.
• Avoid repetition.
• Always use the surname along with the title when referring to the patient for the first time in any paragraph. Avoid pronouns at first occurrence in all paragraphs.

But where can we learn all these rules essential for writing an OET transfer letter for a patient with a fractured leg to a physiotherapy unit for rehabilitation? Where can we learn the OET letter structure to write an OET transfer letter for a patient with a fractured leg to a physiotherapy unit for rehabilitation? Have you heard about the OET coaching classes offered by the Entri Elevate platform? They offer experienced mentors, mock tests, live classes, doubt-clearing sessions, daily study plans, daily tasks, exam preparation strategies and 100% syllabus coverage.

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OET Transfer Letter for A Patient to A Physiotherapy Unit: Example

A sample OET Transfer Letter for a patient with a fractured leg to a physiotherapy unit for rehabilitation is given below for review and learning purposes.

22 January 2025

Amy Williams

Senior Physiotherapist

Novel Geriatric Hospital

456 East Street

Centreville

Dear Physiotherapist

RE: Robert Dave, DOB: 19/01/1970 (55 years)

Thank you for accepting Mr. Robert Dave, who has finished their initial treatment in the orthopaedic section, into your care. He requires postoperative physiotherapy and constant monitoring of hypertension.

Mr Dave has been suffering from hypertension and PTSD since 2020. Hypertension requires regular monitoring. He has been cooperative with staff and has not had a PTSD episode while in treatment. His current medications are ibuprofen, 400mg every 6 hours; Cefazolin, 250mg IV every 8 hours; Diuretic chlorthalidone (Hygroton), 50g once a day; Vitamin D supplement, 5,000 IU daily and calcium supplement, if needed.

Mr Dave used to be a very active person but now is showing signs of limited mobility and has expressed pain on even small movements.

Removal of sutures is scheduled for 30/01/2025 and a review appointment with the orthopaedic surgeon is planned on the same day.

Given the above, providing regular monitoring of his hypertension along with physiotherapy would be greatly appreciated. Please do contact me if more information is needed.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Anita Coleman

Orthopaedic surgeon

Novel Geriatric Hospital

The sample OET transfer letter for a patient with a fractured leg to a physiotherapy unit for rehabilitation will help you understand the rules that were discussed in the above sections.

OET Transfer Letter for A Patient with A Fractured Leg: Conclusion

It is important to have good writing skills if you are aiming to go into the medical profession because many medical documents needs to be written for purposes like transfer, discharge and referral. So, it is important to know the structure of these letters and the rules to be followed while writing them. The structure of the OET transfer letter and the sample OET transfer letter for a patient with a fractured leg to a physiotherapy unit for rehabilitation will help you understand all that you need to know about the OET writing basics.