Referrals and Private Letters

Referrals

If the doctor is arranging for you to be referred to the hospital, in most cases you will need to collect the paperwork to enable you to book your appointment using the NHS e-Referral system.

The paperwork will usually be ready for you to collect from reception approximately two weeks after you see the doctor. However, if your mobile phone number is up-to-date at the surgery, we can text you to let you know when the paperwork is ready.

There are some hospital departments where you won’t need to collect paperwork as you will receive an appointment directly from the hospital as soon as they have an available clinic. These departments include: Some Paediatrics (children’s referrals), Dermatology, Neurology, and Mental Health.

Once an appointment has been made for you at a hospital or other clinic, you should contact them directly if you have any further questions or need to cancel or rearrange the appointment. You can find the contact details for most of the local hospitals under the Local NHS Hospitals link.

Self Referrals

It may be worth looking at our self-referrals page to check if a surgery appointment is needed for the service you require.

Private Referrals

If you are arranging to see a clinician privately, please let our secretaries know your appointment details so that they can prepare the referral letter for you to take with to your appointment.

Private Letters

Although we are able to provide private letters when requested, this is non-NHS work and is charged to the patient at rates advised by the British Medical Association. These rates may be subject to change from time to time. You will be advised of the fee at the time you request a letter and payment must be received in full before the letter or report can be typed and signed by a doctor.

This includes, but is not limited to:

  • Private sick notes
  • Letters for housing, employment or travel purposes
  • Fitness for education
  • Accident or insurance reports
  • Certificates.

Please note that we are only able to provide a report regarding Personal Independence Payments if it is requested directly by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) or Atos Healthcare.