Releases

 1. Changes to the Referral History 

Referrers and BMS Admin users - the Referral History screens have been reformatted to give clearer information. Users will notice changes to the action descriptions.  Review the changes on the screen layout changes webpage. 

Providers and information analysts – the referral history audit action wording was updated. These were also updated in the e-RS data extract (EBSX03). 

2. CQC rating – colour change 

Accessibility testing on e-RS identified that the colours used for the CQC rating, when shown on the search for service screens, did not offer the contrasting scale required to meet accessibility standards.  

This release changed the colours to the following design: 

e-RS screen layout changes – referrers and BMS Admin users

Release changes:

• referral summary screen – referring and BMS Admin users
• maintaining and adding additional requirements - referring and BMS Admin users
• adding or modifying clinical referral information – referring users
• emailing patient referral instructions - referring and BMS Admin users
• remove referral from worklist - referring users
• unlock referrals - BMS admin users

All these changes are detailed on the screen layout changes webpage.

This update introduced system background changes to support the running and development of e-RS. These did not impact end users. 

1. e-RS screen layout changes – referrers

Viewing Enquiries tab – referring users

The ‘Enquiries’ tab has been renamed to ‘Quick search’ and the restricted services search has been removed.

Directory of service tab – referring and BMS admin users

The ‘Directory of service’ (DOS) tab has been removed and the DOS search relocated within ‘Quick search’ tab.

More information and how these changes are presented can be found on our screen layout changes webpage.

2. New clinic type

Based on user feedback, a new clinic type was introduced in this release:

•  'Mastagia (Breast Pain)’ under the Breast specialty

This change makes the correct services simpler to identify, resulting in an easier referral route for referrers. It is recommended service providers review and consider including these new clinic types to any existing e-RS services.

Review all recent and planned specialty and clinic changes.

3. Ability to determine a user’s workgroup membership and associated services

To support service definers with managing workgroups more effectively a new function has been made available. This will enable workgroup users to be filtered according to the services they are associated with.

For example, if a new user requires access to the same services as a colleague, or where a user leaves an organisation and their access needs to be removed, these services can be identified using the filters and the required action taken.

The new ‘Select’ button is presented for the service definer on the Workgroups tab.

Selecting the button presents a user search screen to enter the required users information.

The results are displayed and a user can be selected, followed by the ‘Done’ option.

The services for the user is then displayed.

From here each service can be selected and the required action undertaken. For example, removing/changing permissions or added users to a service.

4. Patient Demographic Service (PDS) in-flight referrals

The PDS National Back Office (NBO) has responsibility for the management of NHS Numbers and PDS records.

Their role includes:

• restricting access to a patient's record (set Sensitive status or 'S' flagging)
• changes of identity

In both of the case above, it is not possible to refer a patient whose PDS record is marked as restricted, or if the NHS number is invalid. However, it is possible that a referral was created for a patient whose PDS record was not marked restricted at the time, but while the referral is in-flight the restriction is applied. Similarly, if the NHS number was valid at the point of referral but was later superseded by another.

One of the impacts of this is that these referrals can't be progressed off worklists, meaning they get 'stuck' with no available actions for the end user and there is no information presented to the end user as to why there are no actions, or advice on who to contact.

This update has provided a more informative message to the user when the referral is selected from a worklist. The message includes the referrer details, creation date and NHS number.

The image below shows the message where the e-RS new screen layout has not been applied:

The image below shows the message where the e-RS new screen layout has been applied:

2024

Release 14.5 - 10 September 2024

Release 14.4 - 09 August 2024

Release 14.3 - 12 July 2024

Release 14.2 - 14 June 2024

Release 14.1 - 10 May 2024

Release 14.0 - 12 April 2024

Release 13.9 - 15 March 2024

Release 13.8 - 16 February 2024

Release 13.7 - 19 January 2024

2023

Information about previous releases is available on the National Archives website.