Referral to consultant clinics

Urgent Referrals

All referral letters will be read and graded by a Consultant.
Patients will be offered the earliest appointment available. If you wish your patient to be seen by a named consultant, please make this clear.
If you wish to discuss a case with a Consultant, please ring via the secretary's direct line. "Soon" referrals will generally be seen within 6 weeks. Urgent referrals may be faxed via RBMS.

Skin Cancer

Referrals for melanomas and squamous cell carcinomas should be made using the 2 week cancer wait form via RBMS within 24 hours. These patients will be subsequently assessed within the Governments' 2 week cancer screening initiative. Referrals for other skin malignancies e.g. basal cell carcinoma should be made in the usual manner.

Benign Lesions

It is currently the agreed policy that some benign lesions will not be treated in the Dermatology Department. This includes skin tags, warts, benign moles, seborrhoeic warts and epidermoid cysts. Such lesions should only be referred if there is concern about possible malignancy or significant symptomatology.

Content of referral letter

The following information should be included in all referrals:

• Full demographics with contact telephone numbers and NHS number
• Nature of condition and duration.
• Relevant past medical history.
• All medication currently and previously used for this condition including dose, duration of treatment and response
• All other concurrent medication.

Community based dermatology clinics

Background

Dermatology services in the community are provided by a Specialist GP and a Specialist Nurse.

Referrals

Referrals are accepted from GPs, Nurse Practitioners and Specialist Nurses where the patient would have otherwise required a referral to secondary care. The emphasis of the clinic is to provide management plans and support for both patients and GPs, enabling the patients to attend a minimum number of times and then be referred back to the care of the GP. The Specialist Nurse is able to provide time to give support and education to patients with eczema, psoriasis and acne to help achieve self management.

 

The service also provides cryotherapy treatment and minor skin surgery.
Benign lesions include seborrhoiec warts, actinic keratoses, skin tags, and viral warts needing treatment for non cosmetic reasons

Referrals to either Specialist GP or Specialist Nurse must be sent via RBMS

The following information should be included on all referrals:

• Full demographics with contact telephone numbers and NHS number
• Nature of condition and duration.
• Relevant past medical history.
• All medication currently and previously used for this condition including dose, duration of treatment and response
• All other concurrent medication.

Referral forms for Tier 2 Dermatology can be accessed on the Bolton PCT intranet site at nww.bolton.nhs.uk/StandardForms   Referrals thought unsuitable for the community service will be referred on to the Secondary Care service.

Exclusions

The service cannot provide cosmetic surgery and GPs are asked not to refer patients with problems which are essentially felt to be cosmetic. These exclusions apply to both hospital and community dermatology services. It will be possible in the future to arrange additional training for those GPs who wish to provide cryotherapy within their own practice.