An LMC has created template letters to help practices reject secondary care workload dumping, including rejected referrals and requests to complete work on behalf of hospital trusts.
Cambridge LMC said it developed the tools amid a growing ‘tsunami’ of secondary care workload transfer into general practices.
One template letter tackles the rejection of a referral ‘on the basis that a proforma was not enclosed or completed in full’. It points out that the GMC requires GPs to refer when they ‘believe it is necessary to do so’ and that their ‘contractual obligations make no mention of a requirement to complete a proforma’.
Cambridgeshire LMC chief executive Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer told Pulse that ‘we need the temperature to rise on the understanding around pressures across general practice’.
For more information on the issues raised, read a blog by Patient Safety Learning about the patient safety risks of rejected outpatient referrals.
Source: Pulse (19 August 2022)
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