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Hospital Referrals
Helpful information and guidance for patients waiting for a hospital consultation, treatment or surgery.
Referral for further care
When your GP refers you routinely to a secondary care service, we plan to do this within the guidelines of our local services as our hospitals offer a very good standard of care and for you as the patient attending outpatient appointments, diagnostics, possible surgery, and follow-up care, this would be more convenient for you.
However, you do have the Choice to be seen on the NHS anywhere in England and it is possible there may be shorter wait times than the standard 18 weeks. Please see the attached links to ‘My Planned Care’ and ‘Guide to NHS Waiting times in England-NHS.
The easiest and quickest way to find out the length of waiting times is via the NHS My Planned Care link that was launched to enable patients to see how long the average wait time for treatment is at hospitals across England. This is to help manage patient expectations when being referred for treatment.
Wherever you choose to be seen, when our referral is received by the hospital from us, the Consultant’s team read it and prioritise how soon you are seen.
Please do not contact the practice to try and speed up your appointment, unless your symptoms have worsened significantly, we have no influence over this, it’s the Consultant’s view. We do find it difficult to manage calls from patients asking us to try to expedite the appointments but unfortunately, we have no idea where you are on the hospitals waiting list.
Manage your referral
You can find your booking reference number and access code in the referral letters sent to you.
My Planned Care
Millions of patients on the waiting list for NHS care will be able to access support and check wait times at their fingertips thanks to a new online platform called My Planned Care.
The platform will allow patients and their carers to access information ahead of their planned appointment, operation or treatment through the touch of a button.
