Few doctors receive formal training in how to conduct an outpatient consultation or how to compose and dictate an outpatient letter. Trainee surgeons in each new specialty spend their first few weeks in outpatient clinics learning by experience with all the pitfalls this entails. Much work involves seeing patients who have been brought back for review by their predecessors. Problems are caused by inexperience, unfamiliarity, fear of making mistakes, the pressure of patient numbers and lack of training.New doctors will find little help in the standard textbooks on how to follow-up...