The NHS e-RS benefits referrers by:

• providing a safe, secure and reliable system supporting patients in their choice decisions, available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year
• providing an easy and reliable way of identifying appropriate services
• helping to optimise the clinical appropriateness of referrals
• introducing the concept of "book now, refer later" which allows the referrer to fully involve the patient in the decision making process during the consultation
• offering more efficient referral processes, such as reduced time spent chasing written referrals if implemented correctly

Find out more about realising the benefits.

Find out how to develop a referral management plan.

If you've not implemented e-RS, find out how to get started.

Access the professional application (N3) connection required.

Find out more about smartcards and view the business roles guidance.

Use our e-learning module to learn about making e-RS referrals. Watch the video demonstration to see a typical patient journey using e-RS, or you can use this version to view specific parts of a journey (this requires Adobe Flash Player v10 or higher).

Our best practice guidelines help organisations:

• comply with the contractual requirements of the NHS Standard Contract
• understand the importance of using the NHS e-Referral Service correctly
• to deliver safe and effective patient care

Developing a referral management plan will help you follow the principles of  'Referral Management - Lessons for Success', published by the Kings Fund in 2010 to improve quality and make savings.  

You can refer to named consultant-led teams by using the 'Named clinician' function. Our named clinician guidance will help you follow the process.

The NHS e-Referral Service allows patients to book their own appointments through an application called Manage Your Referral. This can be accessed by computer, phone or tablet. This video shows the application as well as the benefits of using this for both patients and professionals:

Find out what the health community in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough think about the improved e-RS advice and guidance function by watching this video:

Find out more about advice and guidance.

Find out which referrals are going through e-RS by downloading individual reports from the reports and statistics page.

Help function

You can access information from the Help function within the e-RS application, or if you're on an N3/HSCN connection you can access it without logging in.

Training environment

The NHS e-Referral programme provides a training environment for end users. This mirror live e-RS and allow training on a life-like system, without the risk of accessing or altering real data. Access to the training environment can be requested by contacting ereferralstraining@nhs.net.

Please read synthetic test data page if you are considering using test patient/services in the live e-RS environment.

Microsoft Teams training sessions

The e-RS programme team provides training sessions using Microsoft Teams. Find out more about available dates on the below sessions:

• referring clinician training session
• service definer training session
• service provider clinician training session

Training materials

For quick reference guides, videos and learning materials, visit our document library. Some learning materials are also located on the e-Learning for Healthcare (e-LfH) learning management system. If you haven't got an e-LfH account, please register.

Training resources such as lesson plan and trainer presentation can be requested by emailing the programme team.

Training forum

The National training forum has been established to provide open and regular communication channels between the e-RS national training team and a representative panel of e-RS trainers from the NHS and independent sector.

Our service status page shows all known issues with the service (N3 connection needed).

Details of planned outages will be published on the live service information pages.  

Advice and guidance
Archived referrals
Clinical responsibility when delegating roles
Managing and minimising appointment slot issues
Referral Assessment Services

More resources can be found in our document library.