If you have been referred by the Practice for further care you will have been advised of this during your consultation by a member of the clinical team, or via member of the admin team. If you have been sent for any investigations then you will receive a letter confirming the time and date (unless otherwise instructed).
All hospital referrals made via 'Choose and Book' can be processed by clicking on the link or contacting 0345 60 88 88 8. You must have your reference number and password to hand in order to complete this. This document may be sent to you as an attachment via text message or e-mail. If you have not been provided with this document, or are unable to open the attachment, then please contact the the Practice. Please always ensure that we have your correct mobile phone and/or email address.
Further information about choose and book is available via NHS choices by using the following link: NHS Choices guide to Choose and Book
Other referrals (where you are not provided with a reference number) may be sent directly to departments who will contact you directly. (e.g. for radiology tests). Please contact the Practice if you have not received an appointment within 4 weeks of when the referral had been sent.
If you have not received an appointment form the hospital to see a hospital Specialist/Consultant
Please be aware that hospitals may be as busy as ever following the Covid-19 pandemic resulting in cancellations and delays to hospital appointments.
If your appointment has been delayed or if you have not been contacted following a previous referral, then please ring the secretary of the hospital consultant to which you have been referred to. We do not have access to any special numbers or systems to inform you of when your appointment/operation will take place. Hospitals have a responsibility to respond to your queries, so we would encourage you to contact them directly.
If you wish to establish current likely waiting appointment times we would suggest that you visit the NHS My Planned Care website, which will allow you to check the likely waiting times for appointments in secondary care. We have no control over the waiting times provided by other services.
Please do not contact the surgery to obtain further information as you will be signposted to this website.
Requesting Expediting Letters
We are aware that patients have been told to obtain an 'expediting letter' from the GP Surgery so that a patient can be seen quicker by the Hospital Consultant, due to a deterioration in their condition since the original referral had been sent. Asking patients to contact the Practice to obtain this is actually unnecessary and places an additional administrative burden on already stretched GP services, and it is unclear whether this actually makes a difference in bringing appointments forward.
When making decisions about who to prioritise it is only possible for the hospital to compare a patient's condition with all other patients on their waiting list. As a Practice, we do not have access to this information nor are able to make a decision about who can be prioritised. We are also finding that when someone is requesting an expediting a letter, we are merely reporting to the hospital exactly what you have told them already. It is more appropriate to have a discussion with the Hospital/Consultant to which the patient has been referred.
If the hospital are insistent on the provision of an expediting letter, we have created a template (see below) which patients can use to update and forward onto the relevant department. You will need to contact the department directly to confirm their e-mail address/postal address. Please do not send the expediting letters to the Practice.
Expedite Appintment and Follow Up Letter - Dr.Rasib and Partners