Purpose
The opening paragraph asks for a medication review and names both problems: ankle swelling and difficulty following the regimen. The GP knows straight away what the letter wants and why it matters.
OET Pharmacy Writing
OET Writing Sample for Pharmacists: Letter to a GP
This OET writing sample for pharmacists gives you a complete practice task: community pharmacy case notes from a medication review, the writing instructions, a model letter to the patient's GP and a criterion-by-criterion explanation of why it works. Write your own letter first, then compare.
45 min5 minutes reading plus 40 minutes writing
180–200Words in the body of the letter
6Writing criteria the examiner uses
What is the OET Writing task for pharmacists?
OET Writing gives you 5 minutes to read the case notes and 40 minutes to write one letter, with a body of about 180–200 words. For pharmacists, the letter is often written to a GP or another prescriber about a medication problem, such as a side effect, an interaction, poor adherence or a dosing concern. This page gives you a full practice task, a model answer and an explanation of every selection decision.
Reading time: 5 minutes
You read the case notes and the task before the writing time starts. Use it to decide who the reader is and what they must do next.
Writing time: 40 minutes
You write one letter. A useful split is 5 minutes planning, 30 minutes writing and 5 minutes checking purpose, dates and doses.
How to use this sample
Read the case notes, write your own letter under time and only then compare it with the model answer. Copying the model teaches far less than finding your own selection mistakes.
What the examiner checks
Six criteria: Purpose, Content, Conciseness & Clarity, Genre & Style, Organisation & Layout, and Language.
Case notes: medication review for Mr Peter Lawson
These case notes describe a fictional patient and were written for practice. Read them for five minutes and decide what the GP needs to know and do before you look at the task.
Patient details
- Name: Mr Peter Lawson
- DOB: 02/06/1955 (71 y.o.)
- Address: 8 Willow Close, Northfield
- GP: Dr Helen Carter, Northfield Medical Centre
- Seen at Riverside Pharmacy for medication review (pt request): 20/10/2026
Social background
- Lives with wife; wife willing to help with medicines
- Retired bus driver; walks dog daily
- Poor eyesight: difficulty reading small print on labels
- Non-smoker; occasional alcohol
Medical history and medicines
- Hypertension (2014): amlodipine 10 mg OD (increased from 5 mg, 08/2026); ramipril 5 mg OD
- Hypercholesterolaemia (2016): atorvastatin 20 mg ON
- Gout (2019): allopurinol 100 mg OD; no flare for 2 years
- Osteoarthritis R hip: paracetamol 1 g PO QID PRN
- NKDA
Pharmacy notes 20/10
- Bilateral ankle swelling since amlodipine dose increase (approx. 6 wks); shoes tight by evening
- No breathlessness or chest pain reported
- Home BP (own monitor): 128–135/80–84 mmHg
- Medicines kept in original boxes; confused by different dose times; 'too many boxes'
- Admits missing evening atorvastatin 2–3 times/week
- Has occasionally taken ramipril twice in one day
- Explained amlodipine can cause ankle swelling; advised not to stop any medicine without GP advice
- Large-print medication chart provided
Plan
- Letter to GP: review of antihypertensive treatment; consider simplifying regimen (e.g. atorvastatin in the morning)
- Pt consented to GP being contacted
- Pt to book GP appointment within 2/52
- Pharmacy follow-up phone call in 1/12
Writing task
You are the pharmacist at Riverside Pharmacy, 12 High Street, Northfield. Using the information in the case notes, write a letter to Dr Helen Carter, Mr Lawson's GP, at Northfield Medical Centre, 3 Station Road, Northfield, outlining your concerns and requesting a review of his medication.
- Expand the relevant notes into complete sentences.
- Do not use note form.
- Use letter format.
- The body of the letter should be approximately 180–200 words.
Practice material written by OET with Dr Hesham. It is not an official OET test task.
Model answer: letter from a pharmacist to a GP
Compare this model with your own letter. There is more than one way to score highly, but strong answers make the same selection decisions.
Dr Helen Carter
General Practitioner
Northfield Medical Centre
3 Station Road
Northfield
20 October 2026
Dear Dr Carter,
Re: Mr Peter Lawson, DOB 02/06/1955
I am writing to request a review of the medication of Mr Lawson, aged 71, whom I saw today for a medication review. He has developed ankle swelling and is having difficulty following his regimen.
Since his amlodipine was increased from 5 mg to 10 mg daily in August, Mr Lawson has noticed swelling of both ankles, which is worse in the evenings. He denies breathlessness or chest pain, and his home blood pressure readings have been 128–135/80–84 mmHg.
In addition, he finds his medicines confusing, as they are taken at different times of the day. He admits missing his evening atorvastatin two or three times a week and has occasionally taken his ramipril twice in one day.
I would be grateful if you could review his antihypertensive treatment in view of the ankle swelling and consider simplifying his regimen, for example by moving atorvastatin to the morning. I have advised him not to stop any medicine before seeing you and have given him a large-print medication chart, as his eyesight is poor.
Mr Lawson has agreed to this referral and will book an appointment within two weeks. Please contact me if you require further information.
Yours sincerely,
Pharmacist
Riverside Pharmacy
Practice material written by OET with Dr Hesham. It is not an official OET test task. The body of this model answer is 196 words.
Why this letter works
The model is mapped to the six criteria examiners use. Selection is the skill behind most of them, so the lists below show which case notes were kept and which were left out.
Content
Every included note supports the request: the dose increase and timing of the swelling, the relevant negatives (no breathlessness or chest pain), the home blood pressure, the missed and doubled doses, and what the pharmacist has already done. Medicines that are stable and unrelated, such as allopurinol, are left out.
Conciseness & Clarity
The review is summarised in four short paragraphs. Patient quotes and storage details become one clear point: the regimen is confusing because doses are taken at different times.
Genre & Style
The tone is professional, pharmacist to prescriber. Recommendations are offered for the GP to consider, using “I would be grateful if” and “for example”, so the prescribing decision stays with the doctor.
Organisation & Layout
Purpose first, then the side effect, then the adherence problem, then the request and the actions already taken, then consent and follow-up. Standard letter layout with the recipient, date and Re: line.
Language
Accurate tenses (present perfect for the swelling that started after the dose change, past for what he admitted), precise doses and units copied from the notes, and no note-form abbreviations such as OD or ON.
Included because the reader needs it
- Reason for writing: review of medication
- Amlodipine increase from 5 mg to 10 mg in August and the ankle swelling since then
- No breathlessness or chest pain
- Home blood pressure readings
- Missed evening atorvastatin and the doubled ramipril doses
- Suggested review and simplification for the GP to consider
- Advice given, large-print chart and poor eyesight
- Consent and appointment within two weeks
Left out because it does not change the next step
- Retired bus driver and dog walking
- Gout history and allopurinol (stable, unrelated)
- Hip osteoarthritis and paracetamol as required
- Alcohol and smoking status
- Exact wording of the patient's comments
- Pharmacy follow-up phone call (useful but not something the GP must act on)
Common mistakes in OET pharmacy letters
These errors cost marks in pharmacy letters to prescribers again and again, and each one is easy to fix once you can see it.
- Telling the GP what to prescribe instead of suggesting a review for the GP to decide.
- Listing every medicine and dose, including stable ones that have nothing to do with the problem.
- Leaving out relevant negatives, such as no breathlessness, that help the GP judge how urgent the swelling is.
- Forgetting to say what the pharmacist has already done and advised.
- Missing the safety point: the occasional double dose of ramipril.
- Using note-form abbreviations such as OD, ON and PRN in the letter.
- Forgetting to mention that the patient has consented to the GP being contacted.
For the method behind these decisions, read the OET Writing tips or see the OET courses, including the pharmacy course. Try the other practice letters too: the nursing discharge letter, the nursing transfer letter, the medicine referral letter, the pharmacy letter to a GP and the physiotherapy discharge letter.
Write your own version and get it marked
Write your own pharmacy letter for this task in 40 minutes, then send it for OET writing correction. Each corrected letter comes back with an estimated score, detailed correction and voice-note feedback on WhatsApp. If you are not sure your English is ready for OET yet, start with the free placement test.
OET pharmacy writing sample FAQ
More exam questions are answered on the full OET FAQ page.
How long should an OET pharmacy letter be?
The body of the letter should be about 180–200 words. Writing a little more or less is not penalised on its own, but long letters usually include irrelevant case notes, which costs marks for content and conciseness.
Who do pharmacists write to in OET Writing?
Usually a GP or another prescriber about a medication problem, such as a side effect, an interaction, poor adherence or a dosing concern. Some tasks ask you to write to a patient, a carer or a manufacturer, which changes the reader and the tone.
Can a pharmacist recommend changes to a GP in the letter?
Yes, but as a suggestion for the prescriber to consider, not as an instruction. Phrases such as “I would be grateful if you could review” keep the tone professional and leave the prescribing decision with the GP.
Can I get my OET pharmacy letter marked?
Yes. Write your own version of this task under timed conditions, then send it for OET writing correction. You receive an estimated score, detailed correction and voice-note feedback on WhatsApp.
Next step
Find out what your pharmacy letter would score
Write this task under time, send it for correction and get an estimated score with voice-note feedback on exactly what to change.