There are many NHS services you can access in Brighton and Hove via a self-referral:

Healthy Lifestyle

For healthy lifestyle advice you can refer to Beezee Bodies. Designed to make you and your family make small changes to make a big difference overall and keep you healthy.

Physiotherapy

For any condition lasting 6 weeks you can also now refer yourself online or by telephone (0300 303 8063) directly to physiotherapy. Their website also has useful resources with physiotherapy exercise sheets you can do.

Hand and Wrist

For hand or wrist symptoms lasting 6 weeks or longer. You can refer online online and also by telephone (0300 303 8063)

Mental Health

Services for children and adults. You can refer yourself if you would like to speak to someone about your mental health. Also see our mental health sites for more information about the help you can access

Carers

If you are a carer and would like to find out more on the support you can access, you can refer yourself or see The Carers Hub website to get more information.

Social Prescribers are trained volunteers with previous experience of supporting people. They work with a person to help them identify and access the right local groups and services. The team facilitate onward referrals by making arrangements on the person’s behalf as needed, filling in forms, making appointments and following up.

​They can help with isolation and loneliness; Housing, money and benefits issues; Work and unemployment; Lifestyle factors such as diet, exercise and weight loss; Language and cultural barriers

​-Insomnia/sleep issues

- Pregnancy Services

-Sexual Health

- Healthy Living/Lifestyle

- Money Advice

- Drug and Alcohol misuse

- Carers

- Social services assessment for home help/care

The medical secretaries spend a lot of time talking to patients about their referrals. The vast majority of those enquiries are regarding timescale.

To explain the referral system; following instruction from a GP, the surgery’s medical secretaries make an onwards referral to the appropriate hospital department.

Once the referral is in the hands of the hospital, the medical secretaries have no further input and are unable to expedite appointments without GP authorisation based on there being a significant new serious clinical reason to do so, not due to unhappiness at waiting times.

Unless your symptoms have severely worsened, the hospitals are requesting GPs do not request to expedite appointments. They have confirmed that they are working as best they can to ‘catch up’ and in some fields are providing extra clinics where possible. If they deem that you should be seen as ‘urgent’ then they try to offer an early appointment. In some instances ‘urgent’ referrals are downgraded to ‘routine’, this is decided by the specialist consultant and is out of the control of the GP.   Unnecessarily contacting the surgery regarding unhappiness with hospital waiting list time uses up surgery time and resources and prevents other people from being able to access regular appointments

Unless your symptoms have severely deteriorated, please do not contact the GP to request an expedite for your referral as there is very little we can do about it and really you need to enquire direct to the hospital yourself or contact their Patient Advice & Liaison Service if you are not happy.

Please note however this does not apply to ‘fast track’ referrals for potential cancer diagnoses which are responded to within two weeks at the latest.

We recognise this can be upsetting for our patients but we value your understanding & patience.

Thank you.

If you have been referred but have not received acknowledgement form the hospital provider within 6 weeks, or wish to find out where you are on the waiting list, you can contact them directly via the following routes:

• Outpatients for all referrals to RSCH/PRH: 0300 303 8360 - uhsussex.outpatients.bookingcentre@nhs.net
• MSK partnership for Orthopaedics/Rheumatology/Physiotherapy referrals: 0300 303 8063 - Here.brighton.smskp@nhs.net
• Brighton and Hove Wellbeing Service for counselling/psychotherapy/mental health referrals: 0300 002 0060 - BrightonWellbeing@spft.nhs.uk 

If you have been referred to a different hospital you will need to ring their individual number and ask for their referrals booking team

We offer an information pack to anyone who is interested in getting an ADHD or Autism diagnosis. The pack contains information regarding getting your score on the questionnaires, where you would like to be referred and some useful links to what you can do while you wait. Please speak to Reception to collect a pack