Advice and guidance for patients in Norfolk and Waveney GP practices
We now offer advice and guidance for patients of all ages, for all GP Practices across Norfolk and Waveney.
This expanded service supports the NHS long term plan to use digital technology to redesign clinical pathways and reduce unnecessary referrals. It works alongside our Primary Care Mental Health Nurses and enables Primary Care Clinicians to communicate digitally with our pharmacists and clinical colleagues.
Requests for advice and guidance are responded to in a timely manner, and those staff responding are local to your Primary Care Network. We envisage that most requests will relate to medication queries, including type, risks to consider and appropriate follow up.
Things for you to note
- Advice and guidance is not a referral service and is not for urgent requests; continue to contact Crisis Services and Community Mental Health Teams for patients open to services,
- Our Community Mental Health Teams and Access services may also direct practices to use Advice and Guidance within the e-Referral Service when appropriate.
Referral guide
We have created a ‘Referrer guide for NSFT Advice and Guidance’ which you can download here: Referrer Guide for NSFT Advice and Guidance [pdf] 666KB
For those used to using the e-Referral Service the following information is important:
- Within eRS search criteria, change request type to ‘Advice’,
- For patients aged 0 to 24 (inclusive) search with a ‘Specialty’ of ‘Mental Health - Child and Adolescent’,
- For patients aged 25 and over search with a ‘Specialty’ of ‘Mental Health - Adults of all ages’,
- Select most appropriate clinic type for the request.
Please share this information within your organisations; any queries for NSFT Advice and Guidance can be emailed to business.change@nsft.nhs.uk