Referrals

Your GP will discuss with you and, if appropriate, your carer, why a referral is being recommended. It is usually because your GP wants a specialist’s help in deciding on the best way to treat your condition. This might involve referring you for tests or investigations that cannot be carried out in a GP surgery. Your GP will also discuss with you what choices there are for where you can be referred.

GP practices and hospitals use different ways of arranging appointments:

• Your GP practice may give you a reference number and a password you can use to book, change or cancel your appointment online or by phone. In time, more and more GP practices will refer patients in this way.
• You may receive a letter from the hospital confirming your appointment. You need to reply as soon as possible and tell the hospital if you can attend on the date offered.
• Alternatively, sometimes patients receive a letter asking them to phone the hospital to make an appointment with a specialist.

Your GP has arranged for you to have tests or see a hospital doctor (specialist). This is to investigate your symptoms, find out what is wrong and it if could be cancer. Most people will not have cancer, but if you do, early diagnosis and treatment are important.

Your urgent suspected cancer referral

Normally, if the specialist thinks you need any test, investigation, or surgical procedure, the specialist is responsible for: 

• Arranging the test, investigation, or procedure, explaining how and when you will receive a date and what to do if the date is not suitable for you; and
• Giving you the results and explaining what they mean (this may be done in a separate appointment with the specialist or by letter).

The specialist might suggest prescribing new medicines for you or might want to make changes to the medicines that you are already taking.

The specialist is responsible for:

• Giving you the first prescription for any new medicine that you need to start taking straightaway.
• Giving you enough medicine to last at least the first seven days unless you need to take the medicine for a shorter time. After this, you will need to contact your GP surgery if another prescription is required.

It is important that you understand whether you need to start any new medicines, or whether the specialist has changed the medicines you already take, so ask the specialist if you are not sure. In some cases, your GP will not be able to prescribe certain medicines and you will need to continue to receive these from the hospital. You will be told about this at your appointment.

If you need to be certified as unfit for work following treatment by a specialist:

• The specialist should issue you with a Fit Note.
• The Fit Note should cover the period they expect you to be unfit to work, or until your next contact with the specialist. You should not need to see your GP to get a Fit Note following hospital treatment unless your inability to work is unexpectedly prolonged.

The specialist will discuss with you whether you should attend the hospital for ongoing follow-up care or whether you should be discharged back to your GP. If the specialist thinks you do need to be seen again, the hospital will give you another appointment or tell you when to expect this. If you do not hear anything, please contact the specialist’s office, rather than your GP surgery.