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Hospital Discharge Letter Explained (UK 2026 Guide)

You leave hospital with a folder of paper, a bag of tablets, and no real idea what happens next. Here's what every section of an NHS discharge summary actually means — including the medication changes and follow-up actions most people miss.

The Clarify Team

— 7 min read
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Why this matters now: Medicines safety research consistently finds that the move from hospital to home is one of the riskiest moments in a patient's care — a large share of people have at least one medicine started, stopped, or changed during a stay, and the discharge letter is the only record of it.At a glance

  • A discharge summary (sometimes called an eDischarge summary) is the letter written when you leave hospital. Your GP normally receives a copy within 24 hours.
  • The most important sections are usually Medications and Actions for GP — that's where changes to your treatment are recorded.
  • TTO or TTA means "to take out" / "to take away" — the tablets the hospital pharmacy sends home with you, usually 7–14 days' worth.
  • "Investigations pending" means test results weren't back when you left. Someone still has to chase them — often you.
  • You have a right to a copy of your own discharge summary, and to ask for corrections if something is wrong.
  • Not medical advice: This article explains the rules in plain English. For your specific situation, speak to your GP, your hospital's PALS team, or Citizens Advice.

Almost nobody reads their discharge letter properly. You've just spent days on a ward, you're tired, you want to go home, and a nurse hands you a printed summary and a paper bag of tablets on the way out of the door.

But that letter is doing a lot of quiet work. It is the handover between the hospital and your GP. It is the record of what was changed about your medication. And it usually contains at least one instruction that only happens if you make it happen — booking a follow-up, chasing a scan result, or telling your GP you need a new prescription before the hospital supply runs out.

Here's how to read it properly, section by section.

What a discharge summary actually is

When you're admitted to an NHS hospital in the UK, your GP practice is told. When you leave, the hospital has to send your GP a summary of what happened. That document is the discharge summary, and NHS standards expect it to reach your GP within 24 hours of you leaving.

Most NHS trusts now follow a national structure for these letters, so the headings are broadly the same wherever you were treated. What varies is how much detail the clinician had time to write.

Two things are worth knowing straight away. First, the letter is written primarily for your GP, not for you — which is why it's full of abbreviations. Second, you're entitled to a copy. If you weren't given one, ask the ward, or request it later from the hospital's medical records team.

Section by section: what each heading means

Patient details and admission dates

Name, date of birth, NHS number, ward, consultant, and the dates you were admitted and discharged. Check these. An error here — particularly a wrong NHS number or date of birth — can mean the letter is filed against the wrong record.

Diagnosis

Usually split into the primary diagnosis (the main reason you were in hospital) and secondary diagnoses or comorbidities (other conditions you have that affected your care). If you see a condition listed that you didn't know you had, that's worth raising with your GP.

Procedures and operations

Anything done to you: surgery, an endoscopy, a joint being reset, a line being inserted. Some letters use coded procedure names. If you can't tell what happened from the wording, that's a fair thing to ask about.

Clinical summary or "narrative"

A few paragraphs telling the story of your stay: why you came in, what was found, how you responded to treatment, and what condition you were in when you left. This is the most readable part of the letter and the best place to start.

Allergies and adverse reactions

Check this one carefully. If you have a known allergy that isn't listed, tell your GP so it can be corrected on your record. If something new was recorded during your stay, make sure you understand what it was.

Medications

The section that matters most, and the one most often misread. A good discharge letter separates your medicines into four groups:

  • Continued — things you were already taking, unchanged.
  • Started — new medicines, usually with a reason and sometimes a stop date.
  • Changed — same medicine, different dose or timing.
  • Stopped — things you should no longer take, with a reason.

The "stopped" list is the one people miss. If you've got a repeat prescription running at your pharmacy, it will keep dispensing a stopped medicine unless someone updates it.

Stuck on the abbreviations? Clarify lets you upload your discharge summary and ask questions in plain English — "which of my medicines were stopped?", "what does OD mean here?", "what is my GP supposed to do?" — and every answer points back to the exact line in your own letter, so you can check it yourself.

Try Clarify free → getclarify.co.uk

TTO / TTA

"To Take Out" or "To Take Away" — the supply of medicines the hospital pharmacy gives you on discharge. It's usually 7 to 14 days' worth. That's deliberately short: it's a bridge until your GP updates your repeat prescription. Work out the date it runs out and contact your surgery a good week before.

Investigations and results

Tests done during your stay, plus anything still outstanding. Look for the phrase "results pending" or "awaiting histology". That means a result wasn't back when the letter was written, and the letter itself won't tell you what it showed. Note down what's outstanding and who said they'd chase it.

Follow-up and actions for GP

Often the last section, and often the most consequential. It might say a clinic appointment will be sent, that bloods should be repeated in two weeks, or that a dose needs reviewing. Some of these actions are automatic. Many are not.

Common abbreviations, decoded

  • OD — once daily. BD — twice daily. TDS — three times daily. QDS — four times daily. PRN — as needed.
  • Hx — history. Dx — diagnosis. Rx — treatment or prescription.
  • NBM — nil by mouth. OPD — outpatient department. DNA — did not attend.
  • FBC / U&E / LFT — full blood count, urea and electrolytes, liver function tests.
  • SOB — short of breath. # — fracture. ? before a word means "query" or "suspected".

What to do in the first week after you get home

  1. Read the letter within 48 hours. Not on the day you get home — but not a month later either.
  2. Compare your tablets to the medication list. Physically line them up. If something in the bag isn't on the list, or something on the list isn't in the bag, ring the ward or your GP.
  3. Diary the date your TTO supply runs out and contact your surgery a week before.
  4. Book a GP review if the letter asks for one, or if your medicines changed at all.
  5. Write down anything marked "pending" and set yourself a reminder to chase it in two weeks if you've heard nothing.
  6. Check your discharge letter reached your GP. A quick call to reception confirms it. Letters do occasionally go astray.

If something on the letter is wrong

Factual errors — wrong medicines, missing allergies, a condition you don't have — should be corrected. Start with your GP, who can flag it back to the hospital. If that doesn't work, contact the hospital's PALS (Patient Advice and Liaison Service) team, which exists specifically to sort out problems like this. You can also make a formal request under UK GDPR to have inaccurate personal data corrected.

Helping a parent or relative make sense of theirs? Upload the letter to Clarify and get a plain-English summary of the diagnosis, the medication changes, and the follow-up actions — with citations back to the original document, so nothing is invented.

Make sense of the letter → getclarify.co.uk

Frequently asked questions

How long does the hospital have to send my discharge summary to my GP?

NHS standards expect the summary to reach your GP practice within 24 hours of you leaving hospital. In practice it's usually electronic and arrives the same day, but delays happen — especially at weekends.

Am I entitled to a copy of my own discharge letter?

Yes. You should be given one when you leave. If you weren't, ask the ward first; after that, the hospital's medical records or PALS team can provide a copy. You can also request it as a subject access request under UK GDPR, which is free.

What does TTO mean on my discharge paperwork?

"To Take Out" — the medicines the hospital pharmacy supplies for you to take home. TTA ("to take away") means the same thing. It's typically a 7 to 14 day supply, intended to last until your GP issues a new prescription.

My repeat prescription still has a medicine the hospital stopped. What do I do?

Contact your GP surgery and ask them to update your repeat list, quoting the discharge letter. Don't just keep taking it because the pharmacy keeps supplying it — repeat lists don't update themselves.

What does "investigations pending" mean?

A test was done but the result wasn't available when the letter was written. Someone should follow it up. Ask before you leave who is responsible for chasing it, and set your own reminder to check in a couple of weeks.

Will I automatically get a follow-up appointment?

Not always. Some follow-ups are booked by the hospital and posted to you. Others are listed as an action for your GP, which means nothing happens until your GP acts. If the letter mentions follow-up and you've heard nothing in three to four weeks, chase it.

The letter has a diagnosis I wasn't told about. Is that normal?

It shouldn't be, but it does happen — sometimes it's a technical coding term for something you were told in different words. Book a GP appointment and ask them to talk you through it.

Can I get an error on my discharge letter corrected?

Yes. Raise it with your GP first, then the hospital's PALS team. Under UK GDPR you have a right to have inaccurate personal data rectified, and health records are personal data.

This article is general information only and is not medical, legal, or financial advice. Hospital paperwork varies between NHS trusts and between the four UK nations. For advice on your own health or treatment, speak to your GP or the hospital team that treated you. For help with complaints or accessing records, contact your hospital's PALS service or Citizens Advice.

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