Referrals and appointments newsletter July 2026

Welcome to the July edition.

This month’s newsletter includes updates on changes to e-RS file attachments, the launch of the BaRS UEC Adoption Accelerator Fund, and recent NHS App go-lives. We also share the latest NHS App trust coverage and service usage data, highlighting the continued progress being made across England.

As ever, you will find details of upcoming national events, refreshed guidance and resources, and practical updates to support local implementation and adoption activity.

Thank you to everyone contributing to this work and helping improve how patients access and manage referrals and appointments across the NHS.

At Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust, a mental health trust serving Greater Manchester and beyond, NHS App appointment notifications and reminders improved communications with patients and were associated with a 37% reduction in Did Not Attend (DNA) rates for missed appointments between October 2025 and June 2026.

NHS App appointment reminders also prevented approximately 28% of fallback SMS notifications, avoiding 2,648 SMS messages between December 2025 and July 2026 and reducing communications costs.

Visit our FutureNHS Impact page for more.

East of England

North West Anglia – Notifications and Messaging (for appointments)

London

Great Ormond Street Hospital

Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital

The Royal Marsden

University College London Hospitals – Amend and cancel appointments

South East

University Hospital Southampton – NHS Notify

The first round of funding offers has been approved and delivery remains on track, with the majority of system funding allocated and ready to be distributed. We received 286 bids in total requesting approximately £55m across the different funding offers, against an approximate £13m funding envelope. Regions and the national team reviewed every bid with input from subject matter experts across Referrals and Appointments.

To date, 59 bids have been approved, with a further 94 bids under review and expected to be resolved in August. Applicants are now receiving their outcome emails from the national team, and this process should be completed by early August. All information and documentation are hosted on FutureNHS.

NHS England is delivering phased enhancements to e-RS file attachments for users and API partners, including enhanced virus scanning and future support for uploading and downloading files up to 100MB.

A release planned for 14 August 2026 will introduce a new attachment status feature in the e-RS professional application. Organisations using RPAs should review changes and test in INT environment. Visit the e-RS webpage for further details on these changes.

Further information including how to register for INT access is available at the  integration environment webpages. For support, please contact the e-RS team via [email protected].

NHS England has launched the BaRS UEC Adoption Accelerator Fund 2026/27 to support NHS providers in accelerating adoption of the Booking and Referral Standard (BaRS) across urgent and emergency care pathways.

Funding is available for implementation, business change, clinical engagement, testing, training, and deployment activities that help organisations increase digital referrals and bookings.

Expressions of interest are now open to eligible NHS providers, with applications closing on 11 August and projects expected to commence from September. To apply, complete the BaRS Adoption Accelerator Fund application form. For further information, please contact [email protected].
 

Referral and Appointments Reference Group - 18 August

Referrals and Appointmnets Supplier Forum - 8 September

e-RS Training Forum - 15 September

Join our FutureNHS workspace. 

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