Some trusts are placing blanket bans on all consultant to consultant referrals and putting patients’ health at risk in the process, delegates at the Annual Representative Meeting (ARM) were told on Tuesday (30 June).

They voted overwhelmingly to seek to overturn this “simplistic prohibition” and to introduce national guidelines indicating when consultants could legitimately refer patients on to another specialist without referring back to the general practitioner.

GP Chaand Nagpaul from Edgware and Hendon said that although GP referral should be the …