Making a referral

We have reduced waiting times dramatically to ensure that 95% of patients are treated within 18 weeks of referral.

We aim to make the referral process easy, efficient and reliable for both you and your patients. In order to achieve this, we hope to move towards full electronic booking in the near future.

Services available on Choose and Book

Choose and Book is our preferred referral method as it provides a clear audit trail for both primary and secondary care. Almost all of our services are available to book via Choose and Book and we regularly add new services, so please refer to the Choose and Book system for a full up-to-date list.

Direct booking

This enables the patient or GP to book the hospital appointment during their GP visit or afterwards by telephone or online using the national appointment booking service.

If there are no appointments available on the Choose and Book system, please ask the patient to call the national Appointment Line (TAL) on 0845 608 8888.

Indirect booking

A few services are available only by indirect booking—that is, the patient can be referred through Choose and Book, but not booked directly into an appointment slot. For indirectly bookable services, the patient must contact the hospital directly to book the appointment.

The referral letter should be attached within three days of referral for routine cases, and one day for urgent cases. This enables us to confirm if the patient has been booked in to the correct clinic at the correct priority level, and ensures that the consultant has all the necessary information when seeing the patient.

Services not available on Choose and Book

For services which are not available on Choose and Book, referrals should be sent to the Appointments Office directly:

E: chelwest.gpreferrals@nhs.net
F: 020 3315 8814

Appointments Office
Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
369 Fulham Road
London
SW10 9NH

Referrals to the Acute Oncology Unit
E: cancerrapa@chelwest.nhs.uk
T: 020 8746 8000 bleep 5019
F: 020 3315 8863 (marking the fax for attention of the Acute Oncology Unit)

Referrals to specialist services

Some specialist services should be referred directly to the specialty—full details are given on the referral forms:

• Adult Speech and Language Therapy referral form
  Plain (.doc)
• Antenatal referral form
  Plain (.doc) | EMIS (.rtf) | Vision (.doc)
• Children’s Dietitian Outpatient Clinic referral form
  Plain (.doc) | EMIS (.rtf) | Vision (.doc)
• Children’s Musculoskeletal referral form
  Plain (.doc) | EMIS (.rtf) | Vision (.doc)
• ECG request form
  Plain (.doc) | EMIS (.rtf) | Vision (.doc)
• Endoscopy request form
  Plain (.doc) | EMIS (.rtf) | Vision (.doc)
• Open Access Echo & Heart Failure referral form (all PCTs)
  Plain (.doc) | EMIS (.rtf) | Vision (.doc)
• Open Access Echo & Heart Failure referral form (NHS Kensington and Chelsea only)
  Plain (.doc) | EMIS (.rtf) | Vision (.doc)
• Patient Transport request form
  Plain (.doc) | EMIS (.rtf) | Vision (.doc)
• Physiotherapy referral form (NHS Kensington and Chelsea only)
  Plain (.doc) | EMIS (.rtf) | Vision (.doc)
• Rapid Access Chest Pain Clinic referral form
  Plain (.doc) | EMIS (.rtf) | Vision (.doc)
• TIA Clinic referral form
  Plain (.doc) | Plain (.pdf) | EMIS (.rtf) | Vision (.doc)
• Women’s Health Physiotherapy referral form
  Plain (.doc) | EMIS (.rtf) | Vision (.doc)