Does anyone know how a GP referral works?

[Shufflebumnessie]

Hi,
My 13 year old son had a GP appointment in mid-May. One of the actions from the GP was for him to be referred to a Paediatric Hub for them to decide if his symptoms can be investigated by a Paediatric GP, or if he needs to see a specialist at the hospital.

I went in person to the GP surgery 3 weeks ago and asked what date the referral had been made. The receptionists looked at his notes and stated that it looked as though the referral hadn't actually been made (I had a feeling this was the case, as the same GP has also forgotten to submit the blood test request from the same appointment). She then sent an urgent request to the GP who saw him to chase this.

Yesterday I submitted a request via the e-consult asking them to confirm the date the referral had been made and roughly what the waiting time was for him to see someone (as I know there are guidelines regarding waiting times).

I recieved a response this morning stating "it is in the process of being done for you, and you will be contacted in due course". Neither of my questions were answered.

My feeling is that the referral still hasn't been done as surely if it had, it would be very simple for the admin team to look at his records and see the date of submission?

My question is, am I oversimplifying the referral process? Can it really take over 2 months for the referral from the GP just to be submitted? Or am I being fobbed off? I assumed that the GP referral was submitted shortly after the appointment and then it entered the referral system very soon after that. Is it actually a much longer, more convoluted process than that?

If you have any knowledge of the way the GP referral system works I'd love to know if you think a referral date should be easily available by now, or if I need to chase yet again!

Thanks in advance (& apologies for the essay).

When I worked in a GP surgery referrals were all done electronically and took maybe two or three days depending on the workload and the admin staff.

I think your practice is fobbing you off on this one sorry.

No.

referrals are generally a letter or an email to the clinic/hospital.

i’ve known them done in hours (rare!) more likely is within the week.

hassle them. They’ve forgotten and/or don’t want to send it.

I would expect it to be done within a week at the latest. I would talk to the practice manager.

Oops, they have forgotten and don't want to own up about it. I was a GP and as soon as I said I'd refer someone I would add it to my task list in front of the patient and that would mean it would get done within days (depending how complex the referral was) I started doing this after I forgot to do a referral to physio for a patient. I felt awful about it and rang and apologised. We are human and we do make mistakes but we need to own up to them when we make them.

For urgent referrals I used to write the letter straight after the consultation (it would still be in my task list in case I got interrupted) I would then copy and paste the letter and use that as my clinical notes. Saved typing twice.

I recently had a few tests and as one came back needing an urgent GP visit, so I was given a same day appointment and the referral to the hospital was available via the NHS app the following day.

If you are in England your DS is old enough to have an account to check things.

www.nhsapp.service.nhs.uk/login?redirect_to=health-records-gp-medical-record

Thank you for all the replies, you've all confirmed my suspicions.
I'll be contacting the surgery again and pressing for the actual information.

@sashh he has the app but we can't access the necessary information as it says the surgery hasn't given permission (even though all the paperwork/ID etc was submitted weeks ago & we've been in to the surgery to sort it out but it's still not working!). We'll be going in to the surgery in person again tomorrow!