GIRFT brought together a working group of clinicians from across primary and secondary care to develop the customisable templates, aiming to ensure they are helpful to both the specialists using them and the GPs receiving them.
Rehan Khan, GIRFT clinical adviser for gynaecology, chaired the working group developing the guidance.
“A&G is crucial to efficiently performing outpatient services, supporting GPs to provide optimum gynaecology support to patients closer to home, aided by guidance from specialist teams. This guide will support trusts to implement best practice and to empower patients through shared decision-making, whilst minimising unnecessary and inefficient outpatient activity.”
“The collaborative work we have done on the gynaecology A&G templates is intended to allow primary care clinicians to have access to up to date and expert consensus specialist opinion if they wish or need to manage their patients without a referral. I look forward to the templates being adapted and refined over time to ensure they are easily accessible to primary care clinicians, enhance local pathways and guidance, provide clear answers to frequently asked questions and all backed up by up-to-date evidenced information.”
A&G, also known as Specialist Advice Services, allows GPs to obtain advice from specialists in secondary care, which means patients get advice on their suspected condition more quickly than waiting to see a specialist in the outpatient department.
The GIRFT toolkit offers tips on making optimal use of A&G and includes templates which can be adapted in response to A&G requests for 14 gynae conditions, including recurrent thrush, stress urinary incontinence and prolapse.
The colour-coded templates aim to improve the timeliness and quality of responses back to GPs, allowing a personalised response which is tailored to the patient’s presentation, with the most important information clearly highlighted and scope for local processes and requirements to be flagged.
The templates for gynaecology conditions are part of series from GIRFT supporting improvements in outpatient services. Also available are A&G templates for urology, children and young people’s (CYP) conditions, dermatology and gastroenterology.
