Patients who have access to medical correspondence between their specialist and GP do not have an increased understanding of their illness or feel more satisfied with their overall care, gastroenterologists report.

In fact the findings from the randomised pilot study suggested that it may lead to an increased level of anxiety for the patients who obtained copies of their consultation and endoscopy letters, reported Al-Ani Ahmed and colleagues from the Royal Melbourne Hospital.

However all of the 156 patients involved in the study indicated their preference for receiving medical correspondence.

“This poses the question that while patients believe receiving medical correspondence is beneficial, will the logistics needed in providing this service in our clinical practice reap any measurable difference in overall patient satisfaction and understanding?” they asked.