Clinic template
A Cliniko letter template for a letter to the GP or referrer
This is a Cliniko letter template, built under Settings > Letter templates, for a short general update to a referring GP. Cliniko's own placeholder set is thin, in practice only General.CurrentDate reliably fills in automatically, so this template is written as a one page layout with bracketed prompts for everything else, ready for the practitioner to fill in before sending.
Last checked 25 Sep 2026 against the sources listed at the end of this page.
Free template ยท Cliniko
Letter template: general letter to GP or referrer: allied health (general)
The template: 8 fields
| Section | Field | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Header | Date | Text | Placeholder General.CurrentDate. This is the one field Cliniko's help centre confirms fills in automatically when the letter is generated. |
| Header | Referrer name and address | Text | Bracketed prompt: [Referrer name and practice address]. Not pulled automatically; copy from the referral on file. |
| Header | Re: patient name and date of birth | Text | Bracketed prompt: [Patient name, date of birth]. Kept as its own line so a busy GP can match the letter to the right file at a glance. |
| Body | Reason for this letter | Paragraph | One sentence: update, discharge, request for further investigation, or a change in the patient's condition. Bracketed prompt: [reason for writing]. |
| Body | Summary of care to date | Paragraph | Bracketed prompt: [presenting complaint and treatment provided]. Two to three sentences, no clinical shorthand a GP outside the discipline may not recognise. |
| Body | Current status and outcome measure | Paragraph | Bracketed prompt: [outcome measure and score, or plain functional description]. State the change in plain terms, not just a number. |
| Body | Recommendation or request | Paragraph | Bracketed prompt: [what you are asking the GP to do, or what you plan to do next]. State it as a clear action, for example continue current management, review a specific test, or refer on. |
| Sign off | Practitioner name, qualification and contact details | Text | Bracketed prompt: [your name, qualification, phone or email]. Cliniko does not confirm a placeholder for this, so it is typed at send time. |
Build it in Cliniko
- Go to Settings > Letter templates and add a new template. Give it an internal name, for example Letter to GP, general update, and a default email subject such as Update regarding [patient name].
- Write the header using the General.CurrentDate placeholder for the date, and leave the referrer name, patient name and date of birth as plain bracketed prompts, since Cliniko's help centre documents General.CurrentDate as the placeholder it pulls in automatically and does not list a wider catalogue in the same article.
- Write the body in short paragraphs using the bracketed prompts above rather than one long block of clinical text, so the practitioner is filling in specific gaps rather than rewriting the letter from scratch each time.
- Keep the letter to one page. A GP reading a letter between patients needs the reason for writing and the recommendation, not the full treatment note; link back to a Medicare CDM report or discharge summary template in this cluster when more detail is genuinely needed.
- Cliniko's help centre confirms the template text can still be edited when the practitioner is writing the actual letter, so treat every bracketed prompt as a required edit, not an optional one, before the letter goes out.
- Test the template on a sample patient file: generate a letter, confirm the date fills in automatically, and check every bracketed prompt is easy to find and replace.
Cliniko's placeholders do less than most people expect
Search for Cliniko letter templates and you will find plenty of general advice about placeholders auto filling patient details, but Cliniko's own help article on creating letter templates names exactly one: General.CurrentDate, which inserts the date the letter is written. It says placeholders "pull" information into the letter and that a separate article explains them further, but the practical result for a general letter to a GP is that most of the content, the referrer's name, the patient's details, and every clinical line, is typed at send time rather than auto populated. This template is built around that reality rather than around a longer placeholder list that would leave gaps if it turned out not to exist.
A short, referrer friendly layout beats a copied treatment note
The biggest difference between a good letter to a GP and a bad one is rarely the placeholders, it is whether the letter reads like a treatment note that got emailed by mistake. A GP managing dozens of patients a day needs the reason for the letter, a short summary in plain language, and a clear recommendation, in that order, on one page. This template's bracketed prompts are deliberately short single sentence asks rather than paragraph headings, so the practitioner is not tempted to paste in the full clinical note underneath each one.
Edit at send time, every time
Because Cliniko lets the template text be changed when the actual letter is written, this template treats every bracketed prompt as a mandatory edit rather than a suggestion. A letter sent with a bracket still visible, or with last month's patient details left in from editing a previous letter, damages trust with a referrer faster than a slightly plain layout ever would. Building the habit of reading the whole letter before sending, not just filling in the blanks, is the actual safeguard here, not the template itself.
Sources
- Cliniko's letter templates are created under Settings > Letter templates and require a name, a body, and a default email subject; placeholders in the body 'pull' patient specific information into the letter automatically when it is generated from a patient's file, and the template text can still be edited at that point. Cliniko Help, checked 25 Sep 2026.
- Cliniko's create letter templates article names General.CurrentDate as a placeholder that automatically inserts the date the letter is written, and points to a separate article for a fuller explanation of placeholders rather than listing a complete catalogue in the same article. Cliniko Help, checked 25 Sep 2026.
- Cliniko's help centre publishes a separate overview of writing and sending letters, distinct from treatment note templates, covering how a letter is drafted from a patient's file and sent from within Cliniko. Cliniko Help, checked 25 Sep 2026.
- The shared Code of conduct for registered health practitioners, applied by each National Board including the Physiotherapy Board of Australia, expects records sufficient for another practitioner to continue a patient's care, which is the standard a letter to a referring GP is written to meet. Physiotherapy Board of Australia, checked 25 Sep 2026.