e-Referrals
GP referrals to the Trust for consultant-led first outpatient appointments must be submitted using the e-Referrals System (e-RS). Referrals submitted by other means will be returned for re-submission.
There are a number of excluded specialties – please click here to view these.
GP returned mail process
If you receive correspondence from the Trust for a patient that is no longer registered with your surgery, please click here for the GP returned mail process.
Guidance for GPs – death in the community notification
Please click here for GP guidance on notifying the Trust of a death of a patient in the community.
Patient initiated follow-up (PIFU)
PIFU is Patient-Initiated Follow-Up – giving patients and carers the flexibility to arrange their follow-up appointments as and when they need them, rather than routine appointments which may not fit the patient’s needs.
You can find out more about PIFU here on the NHS England website.
The Trust launched PIFU during 2021 and went live with several specialties. We have since been working on rolling out PIFU to other specialties.
As a reminder the table below outlines the length of the PIFU and conditions covered by the PIFU for each of these specialties:
Specialty | Length of PIFU | Conditions | Go live date |
ENT | 12 months | All ENT conditions | July 2021 |
Urology | 6 months | All urology conditions | July 2021 |
Neurology | 24 months | All neurological conditions | July 2021 |
Breast | 6 months | Benign breast conditions only | July 2021 |
Cardiology | 12 months | All cardiology conditions, Heart Function, Arrhythmia | December 2021 |
Pain | 9 months | All pain conditions | December 2021 |
Trauma and orthopaedic | 12 months | All trauma and orthopaedic conditions, orthopaedic fracture | December 2021 |
Gynaecology | 6 months | All conditions | February 2022 |
Plastic assessment and dressing clinic (PADC) | 2 months | Plastic dressing | July 2022 |
Gastroenterology | IBD- PIFU+ | August 2022 | |
Respiratory Physiology | 18 months | Sleep study | November 22 |
Plastic Surgery | 12 months | All sub specialites | April 2023 |
Rheumatology | 18 months | All rheumatology conditions | May 2023 |
Dermatology | 12 months | All dermatology conditions | May 2023 |
Oral Surgery | 12 months | All oral surgery conditions | May 2023 |
Vascular Surgery | 6 months | All vascular surgery conditions | May 2023 |
General Surgery | 3 & 6 months | All general surgery conditions | May 2023 |
Ophthalmology | 6 months | Selected sub-specialties | May 2023 |
Gynaecology | 12 months | Currently only miscarriage and uro-gynaecology | May 2023 |
Treatment for overseas patients in our acute trust
As a Trust, we have a statutory obligation to identify those patients who should pay for NHS treatment.
This document provides GPs with an outline of the Trust’s checking process.
Should your patients require further information, please direct them to the Overseas visitors page