Referral Guidance for individual providers should be available on Knowledge NoW. If you can not find guidance you need please let us know.
Use of Standard Referral Forms or Proformas
The use of standardised referral forms or proformas may help clinicians undertake referrals to secondary or specialist care in an efficient manner with a familiarity of the format assisting effective use of time.
However, clinicians are free to refer in any manner that they wish, as long as the minimum information required for the referral is provided, irrespective of the format used. There is absolutely no contractual requirement to use any given form or proforma, and a referral must not be rejected simply because a particular form has not been used to refer by the clinician.
The BMA have produced a ‘Focus on Proformas and Referral Forms in General Practice’ which covers the situation in detail and may be of help to clinicians in managing their referrals effectively. A copy of the template push back letter ‘Referral rejected due to no proforma used’ can be found in our ‘Template Secondary Care Push Back Letters section of the website here.