0202FOI1920
FOI Ref: 0202FOI1920
29th 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.