Electronic GP referrals to cut waiting times

WAITING TIMES for patient referrals to consultants are expected to improve following the establishment of the country’s first national electronic GP referral system.

The system, which is a collaboration between the National Cancer Control Programme (NCCP) and the Irish College of General Practitioners, allows GPs to refer their patients to consultants electronically to ensure faster referrals.

The first stage of the system is already in operation, with over 4,000 patients referred into breast, lung and prostate rapid-access services in the country’s eight designated cancer centres last year. This is about 10 per cent of all such referrals.

The new system has the capacity to deal with over 42,000 referrals into breast, lung and prostate services a year.

The NCCP has set a target of having 20 per cent of all breast, prostate and lung referrals made electronically by the end of this year.

It is hoped the system will also prevent a repeat of the controversy at Tallaght hospital in 2010 when it was discovered that more than 3,400 GP patient referral letters dating back to 2002 had not been processed.

The system enables any of the country’s 2,800 GPs to send a referral electronically to cancer clinics and receive a reply within five days, with patient appointments confirmed within two weeks.

Speaking at the official launch of the system yesterday, Minister for Health James Reilly said it would allow for earlier diagnosis of cancer in patients and therefore a greater opportunity to treat cases.

He said he wanted to see the system rolled out across the health service.

“I want to see this transposed across the entire system so that all referrals in the future will be electronic.

“Patients will have certainty about their date and the record of their request so that never again will we see a situation like what occurred in Tallaght.”

Separately, Dr Reilly said it was impossible to gauge how much would be saved from the departure of staff from the Health Service Executive until after the Government’s pensions deadline passes. He was speaking after it was announced that annual payroll savings of just €57 million are expected to be realised from staff leaving the public health service at the end of this month.

Dr Reilly stressed that a contingency plan was in place to cope with possible service gaps linked to the departure of staff.