West Hampshire CCG

The website of the NHS West Hampshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG)

You are here: Home / NHS e-Referrals: Mental Health

NHS e-Referrals: Mental Health

Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust is adding Mental Health Services to NHS e-Referral Service as a ‘Referral Assessment Service’ (RAS). Please see a list of the services below:

Learning Disabilities

  • West Hampshire – Community Learning Disabilities Team (Went live 7 January 2020)
  • Hampshire Forensic Community Learning Disabilities Team (Went live 7 January 2020)
  • North and Mid Hampshire Community Learning Disabilities Team (Went live 7 January 2020)

Adults Community Mental Health

  • Winchester – Community Mental Health Team (Went live 7 January 2020)
  • Andover – Community Mental Health Team (Went live 7 January 2020)

Older Persons Mental Health

  • Winchester-  Older Person Mental Health Team (Went live 7 January 2020)
  • Andover Older Persons Mental Health Team (Went live 7 January 2020)

Changes to the National Mental Health contract for 19/20, service condition 6.4:

The Provider must by no later than 31 March 2020, describe and publish all mental health GP referred services in the National e-Referral Service (e-RS) through a Directory of Service (DoS), offering choice of any clinically appropriate team led by a named Consultant or Healthcare Professional, as applicable and ensure that such services are able to receive referrals through the NHS e-Referral Service.

  • Patients are contacted directly by the Mental Health service to book an appointment
  • Patients are seen by a most appropriate clinician at the first appointment

The RAS functionality will allow providers to triage referrals before an appointment is made.  After triage has taken place, the service will contact the patient to notify them of the outcome and to book an appointment, where required.

As a referrer, you will have easy access to the services referral criteria on the NHS e-RS Directory of Service. Please select only select Urgent for referrals where a patient requires a face to face consultation within 24 hours.

Once you have selected the preferred provider/service, you need to click Send for Triage.  You will be required to attach the referral letter/form before submitting the referral for triage.  Please note, until the referral letter is attached, Southern Health will not be aware of your patient or referral request.  Advise the patient that the Mental Health team will contact the patient with the outcome of triage.

Whilst Southern Health would prefer to receive Mental Health referrals via e-RS, services will continue to accept referrals via post or email or three months post e-RS switch on.  After this date referrals will be screened to assess the clinical presentation and associated risk and then returned to the Practice for e-RS submission.

Contact Southern Health e-RS Delivery Lead, Charlie Gale or telephone 023 8231 1272 for clarification on DoS structure and whether the service is available via e-RS.

In the event that e-RS is unavailable due to technical issues, referrals can be sent to previous generic email addresses.  Please only use these emails in this eventuality.

If an e-RS referral for your patient has been triaged by a mental health service subsequently rejected, the triaging clinician will record the outcome of the triage, including the clinical rationale for the rejection, within eRS and no longer sent via letter using the clinical correspondence tool.

Out of Hours and Emergency Services provided by Southern Health will not be available via e-RS.  The existing process for referrals to Out of Hours and Emergency Services will not change.

If you have any queries please contact Charlie Gale or telephone on 023 8231 1272 or Hannah Aitken or by telephone on 023 8231 1268.