Referrals and key contacts

All referrals should be sent via NHS e-Referrals to the appropriate service however there a few exceptions where referring organisations do not have access to NHS e-Referrals. 

Please ensure that the email is sent with High Priority we would also recommend requesting a 'read receipt' and clearly mark in the subject field 'Urgent Suspected Cancer Referral'

Please refer to DXS for the most up to date referral forms and referral pathways.

If you do not have DXS or cannot find the form / pathway you are looking for, please email, giving details of the form required: fhft.gpcommunications@nhs.net

Frimley Health cross site extra guidance

• Orthotics and appliances: 

Please email the referral form to fhft.appliance.office@nhs.net or call 0300 615 3505

• Radiology out of area requesting 

The request form is for use only when ICE electronic requesting is not an option.

For x-rays, please complete the form and give it to the patient to bring it to the radiology department.  For other radiology requests, please complete and email the form to:

Frimley Park Hospital: fhft.radiology.appt.authors@nhs.net

Wexham Park Hospital:
for CT: fhft.radiologyctscanshwph@nhs.net,
for Ultrasound: fhft.radiologyusscanshwph@nhs.net,
for MRI: fhft.radiologymrihwph@nhs.net 
for private: fhft.radiologyprivatepatientbookinghwph@nhs.net

Important: 
Any Radiology requests which are emailed, will need to be physically signed by the requestor. A digital signature not acceptable unless emailed directly from the requestor themselves using a secure NHS email account.

It is a legal requirement for requests to have a signature of the referrer in order for us to be able to image the patient.

If we image a patient without an appropriate signature, then we are in breach of our working license, which is obviously something that there is absolutely no flex on. We have agreed that we can accept requests which are sent to us electronically direct from the referrer, using their own secure @nhs.net e-mail address, as this gives us adequate proof of referrer identity and intent to refer, in place of a formal signature.

Patients often call various departments in the Trust in particular the radiology asking for results. Unfortunately the team are not able to give these results and advise patients that they need to go to the requestor of the diagnostic to obtain this information.

• TIA Clinic:
  Frimley Park Hospital: Please email the referral form to fhft.fphtiareferral@nhs.net.
  Wexham Park Hospital: Please email the High Wycombe TIA referral form to buc-tr.tiareferralwycombe.nhs.net

Frimley Park (Frimley South)

• Anticoagulation team: fhft.anticoagulant.clinic@nhs.net  
• IVAS Service - Frimley south only - Referrals for the IVAS service should be emailed to fhft.IVAS@nhs.net.
  A referral proforma with all details of inclusion and exclusion criteria are available on DXS in the following location: Frimley Health and Care Folder / Iron Transfusions or if you do not have access to DXS use the IVAS referral form

Wexham Park (Frimley North)

• Please email referral to fhft.tbteamwexham@nhs.net
• Plastics urgent care clinic (PUC): fhft.plasticsurgentcare@nhs.net
• Closed hand injury clinic (CHIC): fhft.plasticshandclinicwph@nhs.net
• VTE and anticoagulation clinic: fhft.pharmacy.anticoagulation@nhs.net

NHS e-Referrals Service

Frimley Health is committed to making available a full directory of services (DoS) to referrers through the e-Referrals service (e-RS).

We actively encourage the use of e-RS as the preferred method for all first outpatient and diagnostic referrals into the trust. To facilitate this activity we will regularly undertake a review of outpatient services and work with the wider referring community to promote any changes. The DoS is designed to ensure that referrers can quickly and accurately locate services to meet the needs of patients.

We welcome any feedback on how our services are set up on e-RS by contacting the NHS e-Referrals manager sara.gant@nhs.net or fhft.gpcommunications@nhs.net

Primary care requests for training and urgent e-RS queries

GP practices in Berkshire, Hampshire and Surrey should contact South Central and West CSU. Their website has lots of training material available which may assist you with any queries.

training.scwcsu@nhs.net 

Website - http://training.scwcsu.nhs.uk

Frimley training hub: https://frimleytraininghub.co.uk/

Key contacts: 

Process for expediting ‘new’ referrals / first appointment on clinical grounds 

Following a clinical reassessment of the patient, the practice will email the relevant speciality email address (listed below) and include the following information:

• UBRN
• NHS number
• Specialty
• Date of current appointment (if applicable)
• Attach clinical documentation giving clinical reasons for the referral needing to be expedited.
• Where an assessment or sight of the patient’s condition is essential (e.g. a lump or skin condition), please ensure this is carried out prior to expediting the request (and during the initial referral). Please make this clear on the referral or expediting request. Also where the sight of a patient’s condition is essential to triage to the most appropriate appointment type or management advice (e.g. dermatology) please attach a photo (where appropriate and feasible). Please see links below for guidance for GPs or patients taking photos in primary care using Accurx. These links can be found on DXS in the Frimley Health and Care / Dermatology landing page.
• GP guidance on how to request pics via AccuRx
• Patient guidance on how to send pics via AccuRx
• FHFT admin staff will liaise with the relevant FHFT Clinician who will review and advise if the appointment needs to be brought forward and seek to support this if required. This should be communicated back to the GP practice. Please appreciate creating capacity is extremely challenging, but teams will discuss with their clinical teams and do everything they can to meet the needs of the patient.

Process for expediting follow-up patients - patients who are already under the care of FHFT

If the patient makes contact with the trust explaining their clinical situation has changed and requires a sooner appointment/procedure, this should be escalated within FHFT to the relevant clinical speciality-  They should not be directed back to primary care for expedition.

Full details can be found in the FHFT and Primary Care Collaborative working guide.

To expedite referrals Frimley Park (Frimley South)

To expedite referrals Heatherwood and Wexham Park (Frimley North)

Frimley ICS Statement of intent re. EBIs

Evidence based interventions (EBI) is a nationally mandated programme which centres around value and patient outcomes. These goals align with our principles as an integrated system and reinforce the need for evidence based decision making which will reduce low value interventions to enable you to deliver high value to the right patients at the right time. As such the EBI workstream has the full endorsement from all partners at the ICS Elective steering board.

Further information about the changes in policies covering patient eligibility for new referrals via NHS Frimley - Clinical policy alignment.

More detailed information about each local policy - Policies and Application forms – NHS Frimley ICB – From 1st June 2024 – Clinical Policy Implementation Service (scwcsu.nhs.uk) 

Related links

NHS England guidance on EBIs

AOMRC patient information leaflets on EBIs

To support our GP colleagues, Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust have provided a list of clinical admin support for speciality service areas please see below.

Purpose: This is for non-urgent queries to support patients who are under the care of a clinician within Frimley Health.

To ensure your enquiry is managed as efficiently as possible please include the following information:

• Patient DOB and NHS/Hospital Number
• Name of the consultant that the patient is under
• Brief outline of the query
• Email address for response (if different from the sender)

IMPORTANT – these e-mail addresses are NOT for sending referrals and NOT to replace clinical advice offered via our A&G services. Please see below links for Routine and Urgent Advice.

• Urgent advice service directory lines
• Routine Advice Service Directory: https://www.fhft.nhs.uk/gps/gp-centre/routine-advice/
• SDEC service directory (including ambulatory emergency care unit)

If you have been unable to contact the service using these email addresses, please contact fhft.gpcommunications@nhs.net

Ward contact details

The main purpose of clinical feedback is to provide an insight into quality and safety issues encountered by all services in the Frimley ICB and to facilitate learning and improvement.

This flow chart guides clinicians in primary and secondary care through the different routes to report clinical feedback:

Clinical feedback flow chart XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Buckinghamshire

For clinical concerns relating to patient’s in Buckinghamshire please discuss with your ICB quality team: bobicb-bucks.quality@nhs.net