How referral advice and guidance makes NEC Rego a powerful tool
Seeking referral advice and guidance from NHS specialists relieves the pressure on hospitals and improves the patient experience. It helps to ensure that people get the right care first time. In this article, we explain how NEC Rego is helping commissioners and clinicians across North London to transform the referral process for all.
Providing referral advice and guidance
Advice and guidance services have been around for some time. They enable GPs to get a consultant’s opinion on whether a patient needs specialist care, and if they do, along which pathway.
During the pandemic, the benefits became clear. Hospital appointments were at a premium, yet far too many patients attended clinics were told they didn’t need treatment or needed a different kind. It meant urgent cases were waiting too long. On top of longer waits, the backlog just kept building. Then when Covid restrictions were lifted, patients who had delayed visiting their GP came forward. This put outpatient services under even more pressure.
Supporting remote access to healthcare
One of the ICSs in London serves more than two million people across eight boroughs. At the height of the pandemic, they wanted to improve patient care by treating them remotely where possible, and chose NEC Rego to do it.
The NEC Rego referral management platform provides a real-time view of referrals and cuts the admin involved in triage. Its Advice and Guidance module then creates a simple, secure connection that enables GPs to seek opinions before referrals are made.
Director of Outpatient Transformation in a North London ICS:
“GPs were really keen to use Rego so that they could keep patient services running. And it’s made a big difference ever since. At certain hospitals, they’ve been able to reduce the number of referrals they received by 20-30%.”
Improving the patient journey
As referral volumes reduced, Rego Advice and Guidance improved the patient experience too. Urgent cases could be seen sooner, and patients who didn’t need specialist treatment could also avoid an anxious wait.
The outpatient transformation director explains:
“Using Rego Advice and Guidance is about improving the patient’s journey and getting the right treatment first time. For conditions with long waiting lists, some patients can avoid a whole year of worry and get relief much sooner with a community-based treatment.”
Rego also helps to reassure patients by smoothing what can feel like a disconnect between primary and secondary care. And with four acute hospitals all working the same way, GPs don’t have to change the way they refer so it’s become a natural part of their workflow.
Combining ease of use with powerful insight
Another key benefit of Rego Advice and Guidance is how easy it is to make requests, track them and get the insight required for performance improvement.
GPs or administrators can make requests in under two minutes. Then from Rego’s simple dashboards, it’s easy to see how many requests have been made, by whom, and how quick the response was, right down to clinic level. Users can also see, for each specialism, the proportion of requests that concluded with advice or a referral.
By automating the capture and presentation of granular performance metrics, Rego cuts out time-consuming admin and enables smarter resource use.
Supporting better use of resources
With a clear picture of referral activity, North London ICSs can now better understand demand and plan for the future. Each hospital has access to the same data too, enabling them to balance their resources and meet demand for requests.
One area, clinical haematology, has seen 50% of potential referrals diverted into guidance. With blood tests providing clear evidence for consultants, they can advise GPs on the next steps while freeing up capacity for urgent, cancer-related conditions. It’s also meant patients have an answer within days rather than a months-long wait.
Find out more about the NEC Rego referral management platform.
