On Wed, 2 Sep 1998 15:22:09 +0100, "Roger Leary"
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>When referring a patient for **private** Consultant opinion does your
>practice normally
>a. Ask patient to pick up letter from surgery and make their own
>appointment. *Subject Patient picks up letter
>
>b. Send the referral letter directly to the consultant at his private
>address. *Subject GP sends letter direct
For us it's not just a simple a or b. We rarely send the letter
because most pts going privately want their appt. yesterday (and most
consultants are quite happy to oblige) and we don't want to be hassled
by pts about when the appt is coming.
Most often we ask pts to pick up the letter and make own appt., but
there is disagreement amongst the partners on whether to give the
consultants telephone no. in advance or say it will be on the front of
the envelope when they collect the letter. The second option prevents
pts from failing to take the letter, but they don't like it.
Not uncommonly though, we do option "c", which is for our staff to
ring and book the appt and let the pt know. I discourage this as I
think the receptionists have better things to do.
David
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Dr David Evans
Cardiff
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