GPs within your practice will be able to refer and book patients into services that have been locally commissioned or which are available across the NHS under Free Choice. GPs can do this, or they may defer this process to a member of your team. Additionally patients can book their appointments after they leave the practice.

Advantages for GP practice managers

• A reduction in the administration time spent chasing up referrals with the hospital
• An audit trail of when referrals were sent
• You have a worklist which identifies any outstanding referral letters
• Status of the referral can be tracked through the 'Choose and Book' service
• A range of management information and statistics is available through Choose and Book. 
• When patients change, cancel or DNA, the practice will have visibility of these changes automatically

To see how other referring organisations are using Choose and Book to help deliver better services to their patients please refer to the Primary Care Case Studies in the Communications section of the website.