GIRFT’s growing suite of templates designed to speed up responses to common Advice and Guidance (A&G) requests has been further expanded with the addition of 11 templates for endocrinology conditions.
A toolkit containing templates for queries on conditions such as hypertension, thyroid enlargement, adrenal incidentaloma and Cushing’s syndrome diagnosis and management is now available on GIRFT’s Future NHS workspace (full list below*). The aim is to reduce waiting times by enabling secondary care clinicians to provide primary care with faster, more streamlined access to A&G (also known as Specialist Advice Services or Advice and Refer).
The toolkit is the result of a collaboration with the Society for Endocrinology and has also had input from other GIRFT specialties; for example, from the breast team on gynaecomastia, and with the gynaecology team on polycystic ovary syndrome.
Professor John Wass, GIRFT’s clinical lead for endocrinology, said:
“A&G is crucial to efficiently performing outpatient services and can support GPs to provide optimum support to patients closer to home, aided by guidance from specialist endocrinology teams.
“We hope this collection of 11 templates, covering the most commonly requested queries in endocrinology, will support trusts to minimise unnecessary and inefficient outpatient activity, as well as helping to strengthen communication between primary and secondary care and reduce delays.”
GIRFT brought together an expert working group from across primary and secondary care to develop the toolkit to ensure that the resources are helpful to both the specialists using them and the GPs making the requests and receiving the responses.
The toolkit offers tips on making optimal use of A&G and includes colour-coded templates which allow a personalised response tailored to the patient’s presentation, with the most important information clearly highlighted and scope for local processes and requirements to be flagged.
Mark Stone, clinical director of Stafford Town Primary Care Network, and a member of the working group, said:
“Communication between professionals has long been central to improving both patient care and clinician knowledge. Advice and Guidance (A&G) is an approach that enables this collaboration, and the work we have undertaken on the endocrinology A&G templates is designed to give primary care clinicians access to up-to-date, consensus-based specialist opinion.
“This support can help them manage patients effectively in the community when appropriate, without the need for a referral.”
Since early 2024, GIRFT has been supporting outpatient transformation by developing A&G templates across a range of specialties, building on the rapid acceleration of remote consultation and telemedicine adopted during the pandemic.
GIRFT A&G template are also available for common conditions requested in urology, children and young people’s (CYP) conditions, dermatology, gastroenterology, rheumatology and gynaecology.
Click here to see the full suite of GIRFT A&G toolkits and templates on FutureNHS
Want to know how our Advice and Guidance toolkits work? Watch our how-to video
*The 11 templates in the new A&G toolkit for endocrinology are:
- Primary hyperparathyroidism
- Hypertension
- Low serum cortisol
- Thyroid nodules/thyroid enlargement
- Adrenal incidentaloma
- Low serum TSH
- Raised TSH
- Low serum testosterone in men
- Elevated serum testosterone in women
- Raised TPO antibodies
- Cushing’s syndrome
