All acute trusts in the north switch to e-RS

NHS Digital has revealed that all acute hospital trusts across the north of England have successfully switched to receiving 100 per cent of referrals for first outpatient appointments through the NHS e-Referral Service (e-RS).

With County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust the first organisation in the region to go fully paper-free for first outpatient appointment referrals last July, a total of 47 hospitals and 2,479 GP practices have now switched to e-RS, almost six weeks ahead of the October deadline.

From 1 October 2018, trusts will only take electronic referrals from GPs and NHS Digital and NHS England are working together to support full implementation of e-RS, with the aim of cutting down on the risk of letters going missing, reducing the amount of paper used in the referral process, as well as providing patients with faster access to appointments and greater choice of when and where their appointment will take place.

Janet King, regional lead for Information and Technology, NHS England, said: “This is great news for the north region. It’s an excellent example of how health and IT professionals are working together to make real benefits for the people living in the north region. The removal of paper referrals speeds up the booking process, removes the risk of missing letters and enables both the patient and clinician to track the referral.”

Martin Spotswood, NHS Digital Implementation and Business Change regional head for the North, said: “This is a fantastic achievement by all the hospitals in the region and an excellent boost for patients across the north who will now be able to manage their appointments to suit their needs.”