GP guidance on best private specialist
If you are considering private treatment for your medical condition how do you decide who is the right specialist for you and how easy is it to arrange a private appointment? Although there are a number of good sources of information available to the general public on medical Consultants and private hospitals most of us would still ultimately like to be guided on who we should see by our GP. But given the pressure on GPs and limited appointment times how much assistance can a GP practically give?
Referral for private treatment - gprefer.co.uk
In addition, even when you know who you want to see the process of arranging a private appointment can be cumbersome and time-consuming. Guidance from the BMA states that in most cases it is best practice for patients to be referred for specialist treatment by their GP and as a result the majority of private specialists are reluctant or unwilling to see a patient without a GP referral letter. As the GP usually does not have time to write a referral letter during an appointment this requirement frequently necessitates a subsequent trip to the GP surgery to collect it. Even then you will usually still need to locate the contact details for the specialist and arrange the appointment yourself. If you have private medical insurance (PMI) it is often at this point that you find out that the specialist you have chosen is not covered by your PMI provider and you are then back to square one.
New GP e-referral system for private patients streamlines booking appointment
These problems have all been addressed by the development of a new integrated digital referral system for GPs, which has been designed to streamline the process of accessing private treatment. The new system is called gprefer and it enables the GP to quickly search for the most appropriate specialist while with a patient and to make an electronic referral there and then. This not only enables shared decision making between the GP and patient but also makes arranging an appointment quicker and more efficient. The search can be filtered by diagnosis, condition, location, clinic, availability, PMI or any combination of these. Appointment confirmation, instructions and reminders will then be sent by email and SMS text message, which will help to improve the patient experience.
The system has been piloted with a number of launch-partner GP practices and is now being rolled out across the country.