Wales begins electronic referrals trial

Tags: Choose and Book Scotland Wales

23 Jul 2007

Two GP practices in Wales are to take part in a trial of an electronic referral system which will be extended across the country if it proves successful.

The system, based on the Scottish Clinical information (SCI) Gateway which has been used in Scotland for several years, enables practices to send electronic messages securely to hospitals.

Informing Healthcare, the national IT programme for Wales, told EHI Primary Care that the system will not enable a GP to book an outpatient slot directly with a consultant.

A spokesperson added: “NHS Wales has not adopted the Choose and Book system for first outpatient appointments.”

The two practices, from Cardiff and Vale health community, will take part in a proof-of-concept trial from next month until the end of the year to test the benefits of the system for patients and staff before wider roll-out.

Informing Healthcare says the system can handle messages from ‘any to any’ healthcare setting including other GPs or professions allied to medicine and from consultant to consultant or from organisation to organisation.

However the forthcoming trial will be limited to clinical messages from GPs to the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff. The electronic referral will be sent to the hospital’s medical records department where it will be allocated to the appropriate consultant’s administrator for an out-patient appointment. The second stage of the pilot will explore the use of the system with a referral management centre based within the local health board.

Following completion of the trial the plan is to extend the system to a complete health community for further evaluation before e-referrals are made available nationally across Wales. GPs in Wales referred 650,000 patients for specialist care in 2006. A national reference group is being set up to ensure the project meets the needs of clinicians and patients.

A spokesperson for Informing Healthcare added: “The electronic transfer of referrals is intended to streamline the current process by replacing paper with an electronic transfer. The e-referral also includes a proforma to ensure information from the GP is supplied in a consistent format. The whole process becomes simpler and more efficient as it avoids slower post or courier services and reduces the risk of referrals getting lost.”

Links

Scottish Clinical Information Gateway

Reader's Comments

There's a better way

23 Jul 07 11:07

Tackling the referral issues is definitely the way forwards - if Wales wants to do this and, using the same application book an appointment with the patient later in the process, go and look at iBook from iSoft. And no need for a DES....

E-Referrals is already in use in Wales

corpsysman@nww-tr.wales.nhs.uk

25 Jul 07 10:07

I feel it is important to point out that the North West Wales area has been using an E-Referrals system since 2002! North West Wales NHS Trust, in partnership with the Anglesey and Gwynedd Local Health Boards have developed and implemented a system for the secure transfer of electronic documents from primary to secondary care organisations. Pilots commenced in late 2002 with full rollout to all primary care sites completed in mid-2004. The system is simple to use, secure, flexible enough to handle documents of any type from any Windows application and supports (but, critically, does not impose) new working practices. A standard referral proforma was deployed at the same time, further improving the quality of received referrals. If necessary, users can add additional documents from any Windows system to the referral before it is sent. The Primary Care component of the system can send referrals securely to any number of receiving organisations.

On receipt, documents are automatically transferred to one of any number of receiving "offices" and referral originators receive email notifications when the referral is first received and when it is processed by reception staff.

Critical referrals (such as urgent Oncology requests) are automatically directed to a dedicated printer in the Referrals reception area and notification emails are sent to nominated individuals, ensuring that the most important Referrals are handled urgently. The system also supports fax reception for Primary care users who prefer to send urgent referrals that way.

It has proved extremely popular with users at both ends of the chain and provides useful statistical information to LHBs. There is no doubt that the referral process has been made significantly quicker, more secure and more reliable as a result of this successful and inexpensive project.

IHC must have evaluated the options

02 Aug 07 10:08

there have surely been many options for doing e-referrals evaluated by Wales, including commercial and local Welsh projects. So the fact they chose this system must mean it is best for the job, in Wales at least.

IHC prefer centrally controlled systems

corpsysman@nww-tr.wales.nhs.uk

08 Aug 07 16:08

You'd think that, wouldn't you? It would be the sensible thing to do.