Patient Care Aggregator

The Patient Care Aggregator, also known as Wayfinder, gives patients a single view of their secondary care referrals and bookings via the NHS App. They can view their referral and booking details and, in some cases, amend or cancel their bookings.

When a patient wants to view their referrals and bookings, the NHS App asks the Patient Care Aggregator to retrieve a summary list from all the connected secondary care booking systems, as well as the national e-Referral Service. The summary list includes a hyperlink for each referral or booking.

If the patient wants more details, they select the hyperlink. This takes them to the 'patient portal' for the associated back-end system and displays the referral or booking details. Some patient portals allow them to amend or cancel a booking.

To access the NHS App and the patient portals, the patient must be signed in to NHS login. This happens when the patient first launches the NHS App.

Information to help guide Patient Engagement Portals (PEPs) through the onboarding of additional features is available below.

Benefits of the Patient Care Aggregator are:

• reduction in the number of missed appointments
• reduction in the number of letters and SMS messages sent to patients
• reduction in administrative overheads for the secondary care provider
• reduction in patient queries to trusts and GP practices
• improved patient experience and patient care outcomes

This service is for secondary care booking systems to:

• provide a summary of bookings
• provide a 'patient portal' for patients to view the booking details and, ideally, amend or cancel the booking

The service does not have a user interface. Instead, patients access it via the NHS App.

The service is also used by the national e-Referral Service, which provides a summary of referrals and bookings.

It is only for use in direct care, within the NHS in England.

Who is included

The Patent Care Aggregator provides information for any patient who:

• has had a referral from primary to secondary care via the national e-Referral Service
• has a booking with a participating secondary care provider

What information is available for each patient

For each referral or booking, the Patient Care Aggregator provides:

• referral or booking reference
• date and time
• care provider organisation
• type of care, sometimes called the 'specialty'
• consultation type - face-to-face or virtual
• description with further details
• indicator as to whether a booking has any actionable 'documents' or 'questionnaires'
• 'deep link' to a patient portal where the patient can see more details and, in some cases, amend or cancel a booking

For more details, see Patient Care Aggregator - FHIR API.

All non-specialist acute care settings must be integrated with this service by March 2024.

The Patient Care Aggregator can currently only be accessed by patients via the NHS App.

For more details, see Patient-facing applications.

In the NHS App, patients can:

• view a list of referrals and bookings

By following the 'deep link' to a patient portal, patients can:

• view details of a specific referral or booking
• amend a booking (if available in the patient portal)
• cancel a booking (if available in the patient portal)
• deal with any actions related to 'documents' or 'questionnaires' (if available in the patient portal)

The patient can also receive appointment-related notifications from the secondary care setting via the NHS App (if implemented in the secondary care booking system).

This service has been live since 2022.

It can currently be used to:

• view, amend and cancel appointments

• deal with any actions related to 'documents' or 'questionnaires'

• receive notifications and messages related to appointments, documents or questionnaires
• select paperless preferences

• for outpatient appointments only

• for acute care settings only

For information about which systems which are currently connected to the Patient Care Aggregator, see Patient Care Aggregator integrations.

This service is a silver service, meaning it is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year but only supported during office hours.

The items considered for the Patient Care Aggregator roadmap for the rest of 2024/25 are:

For details on accessing this service from patient-facing or back-end applications, see How the Patient Care Aggregator works.