Extracontractual referrals

Budgets need to be increased to realistic level

EDITOR,--Barbara Ghodse highlights both the administrative workload and the financial pressures imposed on health authorities by the extracontractual referral system.1 I have analysed the extracontractual referrals processed by Rotherham Health Authority (population 250000) during the three months April to June 1994. I found a similar number of extracontractual referrals per 1000 population and a similar ratio of emergency to non-emergency referrals to those given by Ghodse.

Because of the perception that an increasing number of extracontractual referrals were consuming increasing resources above the figure set for …