What is a referral?

It’s the process that happens when your doctor or nurse feels that you would benefit from a specialist opinion. A referral can only be made after you have consulted a doctor or nurse. There are several different areas to we can refer to.

Primary care referrals

This is when you’re referred to community based environment. Examples include the community diabetic team, and the antenatal referral.

Secondary care referrals

This is when you’re referred to hospital.

Emergency referral

If the clinician feels that your problem is urgent, you’ll be referred to the Quick and Early Diagnosis team (QED). This QED team aims to review patients within two weeks.

Pregnancy

BUMP is an NHS service providing a single point of access for all maternity referrals in the Birmingham and Solihull area. The aim is to make sure you have access to the right care from day one. BUMP will triage your referral based on the information you provide and the hospital will contact you to start your antenatal care. In the meantime if you are worried about your pregnancy, please tell your GP straight away.

This referral method will allow you to select either one of the following: Good Hope Hospital, Birmingham Heartlands & Solihull or Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital. If you would like to refer yourself to any other hospital then please contact your GP.

Click here to inform the NHS of your pregnancy. It’s quick and easy and just takes a couple of minutes. https://www.badgernotes.net/SelfReferral/CareLocation/BUMP

You can also use this to refer a pregnancy on behalf of a woman.

How do we refer patients?

Where possible, we use the National ‘Choose and Book’ referral system. This gives you more choice and flexibility when you’re being referred for further care.

With this system, you can now:

Choose from a list of hospitals that offer the service you need
Book your own appointment
Most NHS services now use the ‘Choose and Book’ system. However, some services still require manual referrals. In these cases, you’ll get your appointment in the post. You’ll normally wait 6-8 weeks for a confirmation, but this can vary.

Choose and Book referrals

You can collect your booking details within 76 hours of you being referred by your doctor or nurse.

We’ll contact you when your document is ready to collect from our reception. Your document will contain your:

Unique Booking Reference Number (UBRN)
Choice of Hospitals
Contact Numbers for booking your appointment
Password

You’ll need all of these details to:

Book your appointment
Check an appointment at a later date
Cancel your appointment
Next you’ll need to choose which hospital you’d like to attend, from the list you were given. You can do this online, or by clicking here.

You can find out more about the Choose and Book system here.

Manual Referrals

If you’re referred manually, the service will write to you. Your letter will include your appointment date and time. If you haven’t had an appointment within six weeks? Please call the service’s appointment line.

If you are referred via the manual method you will receive a letter from the service with a pre chosen appointment date and time.

If you do not receive an appointment within 6 weeks then you can phone the appointments department of the service to confirm the appointment.

If at this stage you do not receive an appointment please contact the practice for further advice.

All Emergency referrals are currently conducted manually in order to achieve a medical appointment as soon as possible.

If you have not received an appointment within 3 days by either post or telephone please contact the practice immediately to follow up the referral on your behalf.

Changing and cancelling manual appointments

Want to change or cancel your manual appointment? Then you’ll need to call the service provider’s appointment department. Their phone number will be on the letter you get.

If your doctor has referred you to a specialist for further care you will be asked to book your appointment using the ‘NHS e-Referral’ system.

You will receive a letter from us within 2 weeks giving details of how to book your appointment and any passwords you may need.

To track your e-Referral you will need the following details to log into the e-Referral website:

• Your date of birth
• Reference number – this will be on the first page of your letter
• Password – this will be on the second page of your letter

To track an e-Referral, click here.