The future of the NHS e-Referral Service

Thanks to user feedback, the NHS e-Referral Service (e-RS) is continually improving to make it easier, quicker and more convenient to use. Find out about the improvements we're making and our user feedback process.

NHS e-Referral Service vision

"To provide NHS and partner organisations with a referral service that empowers patients to obtain the best care - first time, every time."

NHS e-Referral Service principles

Enabling patients and professionals to manage referrals in partnership.

Providing a single source of information on referrals and bookings into health and social care services.

Providing a standard tool to support the management of health and social care referrals.

Supporting patients in completing referral and booking transactions online, including provision of assisted digital options.

Making data and information readily available to support patient choice, clinical pathways and health and social care planning.

Simplifying the referral process and supporting national standards of integration and interoperability.

Promoting a modern approach to software design and development.

Developing a high-quality solution that delivers significant benefits and makes the NHS more efficient.

Future service roadmap

Our new roadmap, which will show system enhancements and their planned delivery timeframes, will be available from this page by the end of April 2023.

Find out about changes in our next e-RS update.

User feedback process

Thanks to user feedback, the NHS e-Referral Service (e-RS) is continually improving to make it easier, quicker, and more convenient to use. This helps e-RS to support your needs and provide a better user experience for both professional users and their patients.

Make a suggestion

Professional users of e-RS can provide suggestions on how to improve the system by submitting a request using our online form. Once the request has been submitted, a copy of the suggestion can be downloaded to a PDF format for future reference.

All new requirements will be reviewed by the e-RS team approximately every two weeks.

The outcome of the initial review will then be fed back to the user and will fall into one of three categories with the associated action:

More information required – the user will be contacted by a member of their regional e-RS team to discuss this.

User need accepted - this will be taken forward for future research and development where appropriate. A reference number will be provided to allow tracking of the request and you may be contacted if further information relating to this requirement is needed.

Rejected – the user will be contacted by a member of their regional e-RS team with an explanation on why the suggestion was rejected, for example the user requirement may be met by a training need, rather than a system change request.

All accepted user needs will be added to the e-RS requirements log and grouped into ‘themes’ of different areas of the system, for example changes to the Directory of Services or Worklists. When any system change is being explored in these areas, all existing user needs will be reviewed and fed into the research process to confirm – or otherwise – their inclusion in the future system development.

Review user needs

User needs, which have been added to the e-RS requirements log, can be viewed, and voted on. The number of votes on each ‘need’ will be taken in to account when future development work is considered.

Research

If users indicate that they would like to be included in the research process, they will be contacted by the e-RS programme research team when work is underway in the relevant functional area so they can be involved alongside other users.

Note: if you are a patient and you have a query regarding your referral or hospital appointment, please contact your GP, GP Practice, or hospital for further assistance.

Last edited: 15 March 2023 2:43 pm