Advice and Guidance

Do you have questions about a patient but don’t think they require a referral? Salford GPs can now access specialist advice via the Advice and Guidance function provided in eRS.

Advice and Guidance (A&G) enables multi-way interaction between clinicians in primary and secondary care (GP to consultant) to collaboratively agree a treatment plan for a patient. Consultants in Salford Royal are providing A&G for the following services:

  • Gastroenterology
  • Respiratory
  • Cardiology
  • Trauma and Orthopaedics (NEW!)
  • Gynaecology (NEW!)

To download an A&G flyer, click here. For more information and a Standard Operating Procedure outlining how to access and use A&G, click here.

Example cases where Advice and Guidance would be more suitable than a referral to Gastroenterology are:

  • Patient reports discomfort and abdominal pain, which has lessened since cutting out gluten – do they need any further investigations or tests?
  • Patient has had full investigations with no identified pathology to explain symptoms and wants further investigation – what would you recommend?

Example cases where Advice and Guidance would be more suitable than a referral to Respiratory are:

  • Query in relation to a new or abnormal CXR finding.
  • Query in relation to concern over discontinuation of certain therapies (like step down in COPD treatment).
  • To confirm which clinic a patient should be referred to.
  • Patient has had full investigations with no identified pathology to explain symptoms and wants further investigation – what would you recommend?

Example cases where Advice and Guidance would be more suitable than a referral to Cardiology are:

  • Querying medication changes to manage cardiovascular disease.
  • To confirm which clinic a patient should be referred to eg. rapid access chest pain.
  • Hypertension – if high blood pressure is identified, whether other diagnostics could be performed to help manage eg. ambulatory monitoring to help make a decision on referral.

For more information about the Safer Handover priority projects, click here.