Private referral question- please help

[Janel85]

I need to get what’s called an open referral letter from my gp tomorrow morning for my daughter to see a paediatrician privately. Spoke to the insurers- AXA about it today, I was very emotional and while I took down lots of info about what I needed to get my GP to do, I stupidly didn’t ask if the open referral needs to be addressed to my insurer AXA or to the hospital that I want my daughter to be referred to? I’ve googled and googled this but all I can find is an open referral form that every other private health insurance company seems to have available apart from AXA. There’s an example from BUPA that I can take to show my GP but that doesn’t help because BUPA does both insurance and hospitals. If anyone could shed some light on open referrals I would be grateful. The appointment is first thing and my GP suregery seems to be slightly difficult/clueless about referrals based on my past experience. Thanks

[blamethecat]

It might be worth speaking to the practice manager if the GP doesn't know ? Hopefully they or someone else in the practice has dealt with this before and will know. Or ask for a copy addressed to each ? (They may have to anyway)

[Mumofthreeboys123]

Hey.

I recently got an a referral from GP to a private hospital with Bupa as the insurer.
I was told an open referral was made to the Dr from my GP.

Not sure if that helps.

[MiniMaxi]

I'm with AXA and have done this for my son (and myself).

Ask your GP for a private open referral, they know what to do.

If you have a consultant in mind you must ensure you check with AXA that they are AXA registered before you book an appointment. Otherwise if you don't know a suitable specialist you can ask AXA to search their database.

Hope that helps.

[Janel85]

Thanks for all the replies, MiniMaxi, did your gp address the letter to AXA or to the consultant though if you don’t mind me asking? Thanks

[mynameiscalypso]

My understanding is that an open referral is just a referral that isn't to a specific/named consultant. When I've been given them before, it's not actually been addressed to anyone.

[Gluetap]

The open referral from the GP would usually be addressed to “Consultant Paediatrician” at whichever hospital you’re being seen at. Hope that helps.

[Tinysarah1985]

I'm a secretary at a GP surgery. If we don't know who the private referral is going to (usually because the GP didn't ask the patient) then we do a "to whom it may concern" letter

[BrokenWing]

When we asked for ds to be referred, we went to the dr who agreed. We went home and called cigna who gave us a number to call at the relevant hospital/department and an authorisation code.

We called the hospital and made the appointment which was in 3 days, took the details of the dr, then called my gp's secretaries with the details and they sent the referral directly to the dr/hospital. As it was short notice they also made a copy of the referral which I picked up and took to the appointment, just in case it never made it in the post on timel