Planned surgery access policy communication toolkit

The Planned surgery communication toolkit includes a series of letter templates for health services to keep patients informed about their planned surgery.

These templates support improved communication quality and reduce the risk of patients not attending planned surgery appointments and missing out on valuable care.

These templates use behaviourally informed principles and consumer insights and feedback to:

• promote consistent, respectful and clear communication with patients
• encourage patients to attend their planned surgery
• encourage patients to cancel or reschedule if they are not ready for or unable to attend their surgery
• remind patients to take other actions such as bringing appropriate documents on the day
• reduce costs for health services.

Advice and practical tips on how to promote consistent, respectful and clear communication with patients when designing letter and short message service (SMS) reminders can be found in the Specialist clinics communication toolkit.

The template letters to patients:

• are accessible and in plain language, and therefore easy to understand
• are patient-centred and consider the health literacy of Victorians
• are designed to meet the requirements of the Planned Surgery Access Policy, ensuring hospitals can provide all the necessary information and meet mandatory communication points.
• have been translated into Arabic, Chinese (simplified), English, Greek, Italian and Vietnamese.