Referrals and appointments newsletter May 2026

The 2026/27 national Referrals and Appointments funding process is now open and closes for bids on 31 May. The funding offers are designed to support NHS providers and systems to sustain momentum, expand effective use of the NHS App, strengthen e‑Referral Service (e-RS) pathways and prepare for new national capabilities.

Alongside the funding update, this edition includes our PIFU toolkit, recent trust go lives in the NHS App and latest dashboard data, as well as upcoming national events and refreshed guidance and resources on FutureNHS.

Thank you to trusts, systems and suppliers continuing to engage at pace as we plan for the year ahead to support consistent, high impact delivery across the NHS.

The Booking and Referral Standard (BaRS) enables a digital triage capability, Streaming and Redirection (S&R). This tool helps urgent and emergency care teams quickly assess patients and decide what care they need. It allows staff to prioritise patients, direct them to the right service, and book appointments where appropriate. Across different trusts and hospitals, S&R is helping services run more smoothly. It reduces how long patients spend waiting, improves patient flow through departments, and makes better use of clinical staff time.

Examples of benefits include:

Blackpool Victoria Hospital — in 2025, 47% of patients were safely redirected away from the emergency department to more appropriate services

Poole and Royal Bournemouth Hospitals — in the first 12 weeks after launch (in June 2025), booked appointments increased from 6 to 40 a day

East Lancashire (Burnley urgent treatment centre) — the number of patients waiting at 8pm fell by two-thirds. Performance against the 4-hour standard improved by over 7%, and average waiting times dropped by 47% (comparing August 2024 with August 2021).

Recent go lives

East of England

Hertfordshire Partnership - Core Features, Notifications and Messages (N&M)

London

Barking, Havering And Redbridge University Hospitals – N&M; Barts Health – Documents

Homerton University Hospital – Documents, Paperless Preferences

London North West University Healthcare – Documents, Document and Questionnaire Manager (DQM), N&M (for Questionnaires), Questionnaires

The Hillingdon Hospitals – Documents, DQM, N&M (for Questionnaires), Questionnaires

Midlands

Nottingham University – N&M (for Questionnaires), Questionnaires

South East

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare – Core

South West

Dorset County Hospital – N&M

Our 2026/27 national funding offers process is now open for bids. 

A letter from NHS England to NHS regional directors setting out the funding offers to the system was sent on 7 April 2026. We held briefing webinars on 29 April 2026 - one for NHS acute and specialist acute trusts, one for NHS mental health and community health service providers, and one for patient portal suppliers.

The process opened for bids on 30 April 2026 and closes on 31 May 2026 – all the information and documentation is hosted on FutureNHS.

Referrals and Appointments Supplier Forum - 12 May 2026

Referrals and Appointments Reference Group - 19 May 2026

e-Referral Service (e-RS) Training Forum - 21 May 2026

Join our FutureNHS workspace. 

Access guidance on our services, demos, resources and promotional guidance to support trust and patient communications.

The latest stats on NHS App trust coverage and national service usage.

Find out more about e-RS and A&G.

Contact us at: [email protected]