Part of Guide to creating referrals in the NHS e-Referral Service on the Path to Live environments
Arrange referral
These instructions cover the entry of mandatory information required to create a referral with a shortlist of services. This referral process provides patient choice and allows the patient, or their representative, to select a service at their own convenience.
When you log in to the e-RS web application as a referring clinician (RC) or referring clinician admin (RCA) at a referring organisation, like a GP practice, it will default to the 'Patient' tab.
To start the referral process, you must find the patient using one of the three search methods:
- NHS number.
- UBRN (Unique Booking Reference Number).
- Patient details
Find the NHS number for one of your test patients and hit 'search' to retrieve the patient details.
Select 'Refer or seek advice'.
The search for a service page will be displayed.
If you are logged in as an RCA, you will need to select the delegated clinician who you are creating the referral on behalf of.
Fill out the search criteria, ensuring the Request type is set to 'Referral'.
Select an appropriate:
- referral priority
- specialty
- clinic type
Ensure you select a priority, specialty and clinic type you have configured as part of creating services.
The patient being referred must match the criteria for your service. Check the age and sex of the patient being referred against the restrictions on the service. For example, if the service has been restricted to females over 65 years of age, creating a referral for a 4 year old boy will not return the required service in a search.
Select 'Search'.
Supporting service search information is available within the e-RS online help.
The service search results will be displayed.
Search results can include:
- Bookable services, which can either be a Directly Bookable Service (DBS) or an Indirectly Bookable Service (IBS).
- Triage services, also known as Referral Assessment Service (RAS).
The type of service can be discovered via the service links, under 'request types'.
Select a number of services (minimum of 1, maximum of 20) by clicking in each checkbox beside the service.
Please note that the e-RS does not allow a shortlist of a single triage service.
Select 'Shortlist only'.
The review services page will be presented. This is an opportunity to check that all of the referral information is correct.
Click 'Request referral' to complete the process.
You will be informed that the referral has been created successfully.
In most cases, the receiving service will require a referral letter (the clinical context), in order to review and accept the referral. A referral letter can be added in several ways. In this step, we will be uploading a letter as part of the referral process.
From the previous success screen, select 'Add referral letter'.
'Select a file' and navigate to the file you would like to add.
If required, repeat the step above to add multiple files up to a limit of 5MB each. There is no restriction on the number of files which can be added.
The e-RS supports a wide range of suitable file types.
Click 'Save'.
You will be navigated to the referral summary page.
Referral instructions must be provided to the patient as part of this process.
The instructions inform the patient of their referral and includes:
- referral details (UBRN and access code)
- choice information
- how to choose a clinic
- assisted digital support
In this step, you can print the referral instructions to see what the document looks like.
On the the referral summary screen, select 'Print patient referral instructions'.
The 'Patient referral instructions ' dialog will be presented.
From here, you can either print the document to a local printer, or save the document to a suitable location.
Click 'Close' to complete this referral journey.
Last edited: 15 September 2025 11:09 am