Emergency Departments do not have the ability to safely make or follow-up onward referrals.It has been agreed though that patients seen in ULHT EDs who require urgent assessment, but do not require admission, will be referred on by the ED clinician. This ensures that patients do not have delayed onward referral. This applies to patients who require 2WW suspected cancer referral, Rapid Access Chest Pain Clinic referral, and stroke or TIA referral.

Patients who have been seen and assessed by a specialist team in ED and require their follow up or onward referral, the specialist team should arrange this. This includes further assessment by cardiac team when seen by a cardiac specialist nurse, or onward referral for spinal assessment when the patient has been seen by orthopaedics.

If the patient may require further assessment but this is not urgent, and the patient has not been seen by a specialist team, the ED clinician will ask for the GP to review the patient to agree further management options, including possible onward referral.  The ED team will ask the patient to contact their GP practice to arrange a discussion regarding ongoing management.

If you receive letters from ED and you believe that onward referral should have been made by the ED team, please put the patient’s care first and ensure that they have the appropriate onward referral.  Once this has been arranged please send an anonymised copy of the correspondence to the LMC and we will be able to liaise with the ED clinical lead to improve the referral pathways.