GP practices provide primary care services to the public.
As part of the NHS e-Referral Service, GP practices and other referring organisations (this could also be dental practices, opticians etc.) can refer patients for specialist treatment, where this is clinically required.
They can also seek advice and guidance on a patient's condition, where they consult a specialist clinician on the best course of action for a patient's care. As part of the referral or advice process, clinical information, such as referral letters, diagnostic test results or images may be added to assist clinicians in treating patients. These are all added using the NHS e-Referral Service.
Once a referral has been made, the referring organisation is responsible for providing patients with the relevant information to log in to their Manage Your Referral account so that they can manage their appointments.
This may involve the patient being given a physical document that details their unique booking reference number (the number that is unique to each referral created in the NHS e-Referral Service) and an access code (this two word code is unique to each patient).
The combination of these two assets plus the patient's date of birth gives access to Manage Your Referral. Patients that have previously signed up to an NHS login account can also be granted access to Manage Your Referral by their referring organisation using their email address as a mechanism to access Manage Your Referral.
The referring organisation that made the referral remains in charge of your personal information and decides what information is relevant to share as part of your referral. Your referring organisation carries the responsibility of ensuring your personal information is kept secure through their own use of the NHS e-Referral Service. For more information, contact your referring organisation.