Advice and guidance (A&G) services, which involve GPs accessing specialist advice before making a referral, have become a major part of NHS England’s plans for clearing the pandemic backlog.
But of the 366 GP survey respondents in England who said they had used advice and guidance, 68% said they felt the pathway is blocking necessary referrals.
The survey also found that of those 366 GPs who had used A&G services:
Around half (49%) said A&G was reducing referrals; More than three-quarters (78%) said it was increasing their workload; Just over half (60%) said it was requiring them to work beyond their competence; Two-thirds (68%) said A&G was resulting in patients complaining because their wish to see a consultant had been diverted. One GP who wished to remain anonymous commented: "An increasing number of referrals are being rejected for secondary care service pressure reasons rather than clinical need. [This] often duplicates GP admin work as we need to re-refer, rewriting the referral and/or enclosing further information or tests results in order to get a referral accepted."
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Source: Pulse, 25 January 2023
Further reading on the hub:
Rejected outpatient referrals are putting patients at risk and increasing workload pressure on GPs Patient referrals and waiting lists: A ticking time bomb A child left waiting for ‘urgent’ surgery, a blog by Clare Rayner
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