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Choose and Book usage rises to 54 per cent

29 March 2009 Fiona Barr

Choose and Book is now being used for 54% of referrals for first outpatient appointments according to Connecting for Health.

Dr Stephen Miller, Choose and Book medical director, said the Department of Health’s outturn figures for January showed a “significant rise” in use of the e-booking system.

Dr Miller said the DH monthly outturn figures were the most reliable figures with daily referrals now running at between 25,000 and 30,000 a day.

He said: “The 54% figure for January is a significant rise and we understand the numbers for February are also looking good although we haven’t got the official figures yet.”

Dr Miller, a GP in Lewisham, said the Choose and Book system was also being used for an increasing number of referrals to allied health professionals and GPs with a Special Interest (GPwSIs), figures which are not counted as part of the DH outturn results.

He said searching by SNOMED coding would be available in release 4.2 of Choose and Book, due at the end of June, and an extensive programme to train every GP practice in the country in use of the new searching services would be run in the two months leading up to the release.

He said it was impossible to know how many hospitals and GP practices were using the system as intended instead of using workarounds, such as the one used by the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust which last week admitted to inputting referrals manually to improve its Choose and Book performance.

But Dr Miller said figures showed a correlation between awareness of choice and use of Choose and Book with the top ten performing PCTs on choice collectively using Choose and Book for 74% of referrals compared to a 41% figure for use of Choose and Book by the worst performing ten PCTs on choice.

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Last updated: 30 March 2009 10:25

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Choose and Book usage rises to 54 per cent