- How quickly can I expect my patient to be treated at Chelsea and Westminster?
- Why are there sometimes no appointment slots available on Choose and Book?
- What happens when my patient is told there are no slots available by the appointments line?
- How are non-Choose and Book appointments arranged?
- Why does the hospital ask for referral letters to be re-sent if they've already been attached on Choose and Book?
- What is the procedure for making urgent referrals?
- Can I receive patient information electronically?
- Why do my radiology results sometimes get sent back to a different GP within my practice?
- Is it possible to refer to a particular consultant?
- Are there any other questions which you'd like answered?
Our waiting times have reduced dramatically and the majority of patients are now seen for their first outpatient appointment within six weeks of referral. We are meeting the government's target of treating 95% of outpatients and 90% of inpatients and day cases within 18 weeks of referral.
Please note that urgent cases are seen much quicker than this. All new urgent suspected cancer referrals are seen within 14 days of referral.
We're working to ensure that we have enough appointments available to meet demand, whilst still enabling us to treat patients within 18 weeks of referral. We have recently extended the number of slots we offer on Choose and Book from four weeks following referral, to eight weeks following referral. We are also extending our capacity in areas of high demand to reduce the number of slot problems.
If the patient calls the appointments line and there are no slots available, the national appointments line will pass the patient's details to us and we will contact the patient directly to arrange an appointment. There is therefore no need for the GP, practice staff or patient to contact the hospital in this scenario, and there's no need for the patient to go back to their GP practice.
On receipt of a non-Choose and Book referral (i.e.fax, post or email), we will add the patient's details to our system within 24 hours which will trigger a letter to be sent to the patient. The letter invites the patient to call the Trust's appointments office to arrange a convenient appointment. We ask that patients call us as soon as they receive this letter, as if the patient doesn't respond we may discharge them back to their GP.
Why does the hospital ask for referral letters to be re-sent if they've already been attached on Choose and Book?
If a referral is made through Choose and Book, but the appointment is booked outside of this system (e.g. due to a lack of slot availability), we are then unable to access the referral letter via the Choose and Book system. Consequently, we may need to ask it to be resent manually. As we reduce slot availability problems such requests will be reduced.
Once we receive a patient's referral letter the letter is reviewed by a clinician to ensure that the patient's appointment has been booked onto the correct clinic and within an appropriate timeframe. Referrals which our clinicians consider to be 'urgent' will be prioritised and the patient will be given an appointment at the earliest opportunity.
Referrals for suspected cancer cases should be made using the New Urgent Suspected Cancer (NUCA) forms. These forms should be faxed to the hospital within 24 hours of the decision to refer and the patient will be given an appointment within 14 days of the referral. The NUCA forms can be found here.
Yes, you can receive radiology results, pathology results and discharge summaries electronically. If you are not already receiving your results electronically and would like to, please contact the GP Relationship Manager who will be happy to arrange this for you.
It may be that we do not have all of the GPs at a particular practice registered on our system, so please contact the GP Relationship Manager if your results are not being sent directly back to you to ensure that we have your details.
In order to ensure that patients receive their treatment quickly, we try to spread demand across the consultants within each specialty. Where there is a clinical need for a patient to see a specific consultant, this need will be met and the patient will be seen by the appropriate clinician (we will rearrange their appointment if the appointment has already been booked with a different clinician).
Please contact the GP Relationship Manager
T: 020 3315 6603