While you are waiting for your hospital appointment or treatment, you can now use the NHS App to get the information you need while you wait to be seen.
A new NHS App feature has been launched for patients to view an estimated waiting time for your hospital treatment. You will know you are on waiting list and how long you may have to wait for treatment.
NHS App users can also view your hospital referrals and appointments in one place and see a single point of contact and supporting information for your appointments.
For more information including how to download the NHS App, please visit www.nhs.uk/nhs-app
What happens when you’re referred?
Once we receive your referral from your GP, it goes through a process called ‘triage’ where we decide the best way forward for you.
The three options at the decision stage are:
- To send you for an appointment with a doctor/ nurse or other specialist
- To send you for test/s, such as X-ray, MRI scan or other investigations appropriate to your care
- To send advice and guidance to your GP and /or other healthcare professional and allow them to further manage your future care
For an appointment or tests, you will be contacted as soon as possible to offer you an appointment. You will receive confirmation of your appointment, which will tell you the date and time of the appointment. This can be sent digitally or in the post.
Been waiting more than 40 weeks?
If you have been waiting more than 40 weeks for your first outpatient appointment or a scheduled date for surgery with us, you could now be eligible for Alternative Patient Choice. Patient Initiated Requests to Move Provider or PIDMAS, went live on 31 October 2023.
Received a text message or letter?
Please do not call us direct – please visit the national website at www.pidmas.nhs.uk or call the helpline on 0345 450 6166
Under PIDMAS patients who have been waiting the longest will receive either a text message or letter from us. This message will ask if you would like to consider moving your care to a different hospital, initially within the Humber and North Yorkshire area, if it means you are able to receive an appointment more quickly.
You do not need to contact us to make enquiries; if you become eligible for the scheme, we will be in touch with more information and details of how to express an interest in moving hospitals.
There is, of course, no obligation to move your care. If you don’t take up the offer, you will simply stay in your current place on our waiting list and we will offer you an appointment date just as soon as possible.
If you do want to know more or think this could be right for you, you’ll be asked to register your details and say how far you would be willing to travel on the NHS website. Someone will then be in touch to let you know what happens next and which other hospitals in our region, if any, could see you more quickly. Full details on how to register will be provided through your letter or text message.
Alternative Patient Choice will not be suitable for everyone, and it is important to be aware that, if you choose to be seen by a different hospital for a particular problem, all your care and future appointments related to that problem will also take place at the other hospital; care cannot be transferred back to us once you’ve received your appointment or treatment.