Health bulletin
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Comparative Study
The delivery of interim discharge summaries to general practitioners by the elderly.
Two hundred and four patients discharged from an acute geriatric unit were given an interim discharge summary for delivery to their General Practitioner (GP). All but three summaries were received by the practices. ⋯ General practitioners collected the summaries from patients' homes in a high proportion of both groups. Interim discharge summaries should be given to elderly patients for delivery to their GPs: this is both reliable and rapid, and clearly more cost-effective than any other form of delivery.