[Epicrises from a department of medical gastroenterology]

The content of discharge letters is important to general practice in order to give an optimal physical, psychiatric and social treatment in view of ideal utilization of the resources in the primary health service. The content of 91 discharge letters from a medical department of gastroenterology was judged by the general practitioner. Most often medication on discharge (25%) and reason for referral (15%) were missing. Dissatisfaction was expressed about late receipt of discharge letters (median: 13 days), the lack of information given to the patients, medicine on discharge, as well as reasons for possible changes in medication. The quality and content of the discharge letter were evaluated as good on the whole (80%). It is concluded that the discharge letter should have a higher priority and, for example, training is necessary. Further investigations are needed to solve these problems.