BMJ  2006;332:490 (25 February), doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7539.490

Letter

Referrals between consultants

Public should rise to the defence

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—Goodman's complaint about the deferral of consultant to consultant referrals is timely.¹ Only a fortnight ago a consultant at my local hospital insisted on speaking with me about a case that was considered to need urgent attention by another department in the same hospital. My primary care trust has apparently recently decreed that there should be no consultant to consultant referrals forthwith, except in the case of suspected cancer.

This is inefficient and does not seem ethical. Certainly, my patient needed an outpatient appointment then and should not wait until April 2006, the earliest "urgent' appointment that I could manage, even with telephoning the secretary and faxing my referral. Thankfully, the first consultant has managed to get the needed urgent appointment, but only after speaking with me and haggling with the second team.

There has been no forewarning of this new state of affairs: the trust did not . . . [Full text of this article]

Tudor Surgery, Watford WD24 7PH david.lewis@gp-E82034.nhs.uk

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