Commissioner rules changes in the NHS e-Referral Service

Currently in e-RS when a commissioner sets an end date for a service under a primary care contract, once this date is reached this service is no longer visible to referrers or patients within the commissioning boundary. For example, ICB. This can cause issues when organisational boundaries change meaning commissioners need to copy commissioning rules across into a new organisation.

The change in February allows e-RS to ‘ignore’ the commissioning rule for any active referrals, thereby allowing them to be progressed.

This means that any patient, with a shortlisted service that was listed by the previous commissioning organisation, is still be able to book and manage their referral into that service.

The change sees the removal of the ‘Commissioning Rule End Date’ field in the following places in e-RS:

Commissioner role screens

Figure 1 - Commissioning Rule End Date label and field has been removed (when setting a commissioning rule)

Figure 2 - Commissioning Rule Enquiry – the Commissioning Rule End Date column has been removed

Figure 3 - Copying commissioning rules from another organisation – the Commissioning Rule End Date label and field has been removed

Service definer role screens

Figure 4 - Commissioning Rule End Date label and field has been removed from Commissioning shrub

Figure 5 - Commissioning Rule End Date label and field has been removed from the Print Service Definition screen and printout