Clinic letters & admin / Letter
Invitation for a repeat chest x-ray
The short letter that gets someone back for the follow-up film, with the reason stated and the result loop closed.
Dear [], When I saw you on [], we agreed that you should have a repeat chest x-ray to check that [the changes on the previous x-ray have cleared, or the specific reason]. Please come for this on [] , or at any time within three weeks after that date if that is more convenient, Monday to Friday between [] and [] . You do not need an appointment. Please go to [department and location]. It may make things easier if you bring this letter with you. You do not need to do anything to prepare, and you can eat and drink normally. Please tell the radiographer if you are, or might be, pregnant. We will write to you with the result, and to your GP. If you have not heard from us within [] weeks of having the x-ray, please telephone the number below rather than assuming that no news is good news. With all best wishes, Yours sincerely,
How to use it
Two things make the difference between this letter working and not working: a window rather than a single date, which is Angshu's original and materially improves attendance, and the instruction to chase if no result arrives. The second is a genuine safety net — the failure mode for follow-up films is not the patient failing to attend, it is an abnormal result attended, reported, and never seen by anyone who knows the story. Say why the film is being repeated: people are far more likely to attend for a stated reason than for an unexplained one, and they will be told nothing else at the x-ray department.
Why it says that
None of this is in the copied text. It is here so you can check the block against its source, and change it when the source changes.
- Academy of Medical Royal Colleges: please write to me Letters written to the patient, with the reason and the action stated plainly.
- NICE NG12 - Suspected cancer: recognition and referral Repeat imaging after treated pneumonia or an unresolved abnormality, and the requirement for a reliable result-tracking process behind it.
- Royal College of Radiologists: standards for the communication of radiological reports and fail-safe alert notification Why the closing paragraph asks the patient to chase, as a backstop to the system rather than a substitute for it.