Prompt: Referral Letter to Specialist Palliative Care
A copy-paste-ready prompt for drafting a sensitive, informative referral letter from an oncologist to a specialist palliative care team.
Referral Letter to Specialist Palliative Care
Use this prompt to draft a referral letter to a specialist palliative care team. The prompt produces a letter that is clinically clear and treats the patient as a whole person, not a clinical problem.
Draft a referral letter from a consultant oncologist to a specialist
palliative care team.
Clinical context:
- Patient: aged [[patient_age — e.g. "67"]], with [[diagnosis — e.g.
"advanced pancreatic cancer"]]
- Oncology status: [[status — e.g.
"no further systemic treatment planned; disease progressing"]]
- Primary referral reason: [[primary_reason — e.g.
"pain management and symptom control"]]
- Secondary concerns: [[secondary_concerns — e.g.
"significant anxiety about disease progression; wife is primary carer
and is finding the situation very difficult"]]
- What I am asking for: [[request — e.g.
"initial assessment and ongoing symptom management; psychological support
for patient and carer if available"]]
- Patient's preferences: [[preferences — e.g.
"has expressed a strong wish to remain at home where possible"]]
Format: professional letter with headings.
Tone: humanising and respectful. This patient is a person in a
very difficult situation. The letter should reflect that.
Do not include specific drug names, doses, or clinical thresholds.
Why this works
The explicit instruction about tone — "humanising and respectful" — directs the tool away from clinical-bureaucratic language and toward a letter that the receiving team will find informative and that reflects the dignity of the patient it concerns. Including the patient's preferences signals to the palliative care team what matters to this person before they have met him.
How to tweak it
- To add urgency, add: "This referral is [[urgency — e.g. 'urgent']] — the patient's symptoms have escalated in the past two weeks. Please indicate a likely timeframe for first contact."
- To include a note about cultural or language needs, add: "The patient's first language is [[language]]. Please note this when planning the first appointment."
Remember: AI is a helpful assistant, not a clinician. You make the call.
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