NHS e-Referral Service Informed, Shared Decision Making Patient and User Journey: The Vision …….

Informed, Shared Decision Making Patient sees GP Carl, a 64 year old gardener, visits his GP with pain and swelling in his left groin. Dr Hunter diagnoses a hernia and enters the term ‘hernia’ into the NHS e-Referral Service. She is prompted to select the appropriate type of hernia from a list, so she selects ‘inguinal hernia’. 1

Patient considers referral The NHS e-Referral Service offers Dr Hunter the option to use a Shared Decision Aid to help Carl decide how he would like to manage his hernia. Carl chooses to look at the Shared Decision Aid at home so he can discuss the options with his family. 2 Informed, Shared Decision Making

GP refers patient Carl returns to the GP as he has decided to have surgery. Dr Hunter searches again on the NHS e-Referral Service, which highlights the services that are preferred by the local Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). They look at these but the soonest appointments are over two months away. They notice that a provider further afield has shorter waiting times for both appointments and operations, so Carl chooses to be seen there. Dr Hunter books Carl an appointment with this provider. 3 Informed, Shared Decision Making

GP reviews referrals to improve patient care As part of her professional development, Dr Hunter decides to review where her patients are choosing to be referred. She uses the NHS e-Referral Service to generate a report of all her referrals in the past year and, on reviewing the report, realises that many patients are choosing to travel further in order to get quicker treatment. Dr Hunter therefore asks her CCG to consider improving the local provision of services for patients. 4 Informed, Shared Decision Making

NHS e-Referral Service vision – making paperless referrals a reality How can YOU get involved? Take part in the consultation at: Contact us on