The Derriford Neurosurgical team remain available for telephone discussion of cases that present an acute emergency high risk to life (eg imminent coning). Contact via switchboard.

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Otherwise, got to www.referapatient.org and follow the prompts.

 

There are currently (27/3/19) several practical issues with this system we ask you to be aware of:

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- the 'responsible consultant/clinician' should be the referring doctor themselves. This is because the system will send updating texts/emails to the clinician, and the nominated consultant on-call may not have direct experience of the patient nor be contactable in the necessary timescale

- you will be given an access key in the form DATEemailaddress@nhs.netNUMBER which needs to be documented in the patient notes

- where possible give a generic email address for the service that is universally accessed and checked

- this access key needs to be handed over with the patient to the next responsible clinician at end of shift by re-entering the system, going to 'my referrals' and changing the responsible clinician to the doctor physically responsible for the patient

- an urgent response is back to the email/mobile phone number initially submitted, therefore if this is a personal email address/phone number it will need to be checked regularly

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