Please see below information about referrals. We appreciate there are such long waits on the NHS but both the CCG and Southend Hospital have advised all practices of this advice.
If an appointment is physically available for us to book on the electronic system, then this can be booked. If there are no appointments available, your referral will be ‘deferred to provider’. This means you are on a list, and when an appointment becomes available you will be contacted by the hospital.
With regards to getting an earlier appointment (having to expedite your appointment)- without a physical appointment booked, we will be unable to expedite the appointment (as there is nothing to expedite yet), and you will need to contact the hospital you have been referred to. If you have an appointment and wish for us to expedite, there has to be a very significant medical changes to your condition to warrant such a route.