FOI Ref: 0202FOI1920

29^th January 2020

Freedom of Information Act 2000 – Request for Information 

We are pleased to respond to your request for information and our response is set out below:

Request

I have an inquiry about the use of what are often called referral management services. For clarity, I am asking about private firms which assess hospital referrals made by GPs and decide which patients should receive a hospital appointment or treatment and which should not. If your CCG calls this service by a different name, I would still like to know:

• Does your CCG use a private referral management service?
• If so, which company provides it?
• How long has your CCG used this company?
• How much are they paid?
• Is payment based on how many patients are turned down for a referral to hospital?
• If yes, what is the amount paid per refusal?
• Does the referral service focus only on specific patients with certain conditions/those being referred for particular procedures or do they look at all hospital referrals?
• If certain conditions, what are those conditions?
• How many patients were considered by those referral management companies in the last year (or whatever period of time you keep figures for)?
• How many were then referred on to hospital (or how many were not)?
• What is the reason for using the private referral management service?
• If money, how much money has this saved the NHS?

If this email is used for FOI requests to more than one CCG, please consider this a request for information from all the CCGs it covers.

Response

NHS Sheffield does not use a private referral management service.