Please see below for the latest primary care updates. 

GP liaison service

The Royal Free London (RFL) GP liaison service is open for you as an informal route to raise an enquiry or concern about any of our services. This includes services at Barnet Hospital, Chase Farm Hospital, the Royal Free Hospital, or any of our satellite sites. It is a non-urgent and non-clinical service.

When contacting the service, please include the following information:

  • patient’s details (name, date of birth and NHS number)
  • department the enquiry relates to
  • hospital the enquiry relates to

We will not be able to investigate your enquiry without the above information. We endeavour to respond to your enquiry within 10 working days from the date the above information is provided.

You can contact the GP liaison service by email: rf.gpliaison@nhs.net or by
calling 020 3758 2000 ext. 36015.

The GP liaison service is only open to NHS colleagues and other healthcare professionals. Please do not share these contact details with your patients.

Patient referral and appointment queries

Patients should contact our outpatient appointments call centre if they have any questions about their care. This includes information about referrals, appointments, and test results.

If the team is unable to answer a patient’s question, they will forward the call to the relevant service.

The call centre can be contacted by calling: 020 7443 9757. It is open Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays), 8am-6pm.

Full details can be found on our website.

Interim chief executive appointed for the Royal Free Hospital

Steve Spoerry has joined the Royal Free Hospital as its interim chief executive.

John Connolly, who was in the role since July 2021, has retired.

John, a renal consultant, worked at the RFL since 2004 and we would like to thank him for his tireless commitment to the trust and its patients.

Prior to joining the RFL, Steve worked for NHS England helping the national screening programmes to recover from the effects of the pandemic and to secure substantial investment in new IT systems.

You can read Steve’s full biography on our website.

View indicative waiting times   

Indicative waiting times for routine first appointments, cancer two week wait and diagnostics across north central London are available on the North Central London GP website.

Respiratory service to launch clinical assessment service

The respiratory services at Barnet Hospital and Chase Farm Hospital will introduce a clinical assessment service (CAS) from Monday 8 April.

Patients referred into this service will be clinically triaged to determine the next steps for their care.

GPs will be able to refer patients into the respiratory CAS at Barnet Hospital and Chase Farm Hospital via e-RS.

The triaging clinician will carry out a clinical assessment during a triage appointment which does not involve the patient.

CAS triage has six possible outcomes:

  • New appointment not required – letter of advice to GP and patient
  • New appointment not required – appointment already exists
  • New appointment not required – refer to another service (GP or RFL team)
  • First appointment required
  • First appointment required with investigations booked beforehand
  • Investigations booked with virtual review by consultant

Following CAS triage, GPs and patients will be informed of the outcome including any clinical advice and guidance provided by the triaging clinician. This letter will be addressed to the GP and posted to them, with a copy sent to the patient.

Issue affecting outpatient letters – resolved

A technical issue affecting some outpatient letters from Barnet Hospital and Chase Farm Hospital has been resolved.

Between Friday 1 March and Wednesday 20 March, our managed mail provider, Synertec, was unable to process these documents due to font changes within the letters. 

All affected outpatient letters have been resent to GPs and patients.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Docman connect go-live: outpatient clinical correspondence

The RFL has gone live with Docman connect to standardise all clinical correspondence to GP practices.

All practices within North Central London Integrated Care System and Hertfordshire and West Essex Integrated Care System have started receiving some outpatient clinical correspondence via this platform. You started receiving inpatient and emergency department discharge summaries last year.

We plan to send more outpatient clinical correspondence through Docman in the coming months.

This means that you will no longer receive email or hard copy letters if you have the Docman system.

If you have any queries, please contact your Docman support team in the first instance. They will contact the Royal Free London on your behalf.

Changes to Barnet Hospital radiology referrals

From Monday 15 April, we will be changing how you request radiology tests for your patients at Barnet Hospital. The Barnet Hospital radiology tQuest will be gradually phased out and this means that you will need to use the North Central London tQuest system to request radiology tests.

The same system is used for requesting pathology tests.

Please start using the new system as soon as ‘Radiology’ appears on your ordering screen. The exact date will depend on when your practice is enabled, and this will take place between Monday 15 April and Monday 22 April.

For more information, please click here.

Sign up for a continuing medical education programme

The private patients' unit runs educational events for GPs and allied health care professionals.

The next event, ‘Venous problems of the abdomen and legs’ will take place on Thursday 11 April. For more information, please click here.

Diagnostic testing turnaround times

Primary care colleagues can expect to receive test results from cardiology’ pathology and radiology within the following timeframes. These start when a sample is received in our laboratories, or the test has been completed. They are subject to change.

Cardiology

Royal Free Hospital 

  • 24-hour blood pressure monitoring: one week
  • 24-hour ECG: two weeks
  • Echo: two weeks
  • ECG: one week

Barnet Hospital/Chase Farm Hospital/Edgware Community Hospital 

  • 24-hour blood pressure monitoring: one week
  • 24-hour ECG: three/four weeks
  • Echo: one week
  • ECG: one week

All ECG results are sent with an automatically generated algorithm, rather than a separate clinical report. Results for the other tests listed above are sent with a cardiac physiologist report.

If you have a specific clinical question about your patients’ results, please submit an advice and guidance request via e-RS. Do not submit a request for general comment on a patient’s results.

Pathology

All RFL sites

  • Biochemistry tests: three days
  • Haematology tests: two days

If you have any questions about your patient's results', please contact the pathology results helpline:

The results helplines are open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.

For tQuest support enquiries, please email helpdesk@tdlpathology.com

Imaging

Royal Free Hospital

  • X-rays: ten days
  • Ultrasounds: two days
  • Dexa scans: three to four weeks

Barnet Hospital/Chase Farm Hospital/Potters Bar Hospital/Finchley Memorial Hospital/Edgware Community Hospital

  • X-rays: ten days
  • Ultrasounds: two days
  • Dexa scans: one to two weeks

Please ensure that paper referrals include the signature of the referring GP. We are legally unable to accept referrals without a valid signature.

For T-Quest requests a signature is not required.

The patient should be given the t-Quest printout for X-ray requests (this does not require a signature).

If you have any questions about your patient’s results, please contact the radiology teams:

Both mailboxes are monitored Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.

If you would like to receive these updates directly, please contact rf.gpliaison@nhs.net with your name, role and practice name. Alternatively, If you do not wish to receive further updates, please do the same stating this.

GP liaison service

The Royal Free London (RFL) GP liaison service is open for you as an informal route to raise an enquiry or concern about any of our services. This includes services at Barnet Hospital, Chase Farm Hospital, the Royal Free Hospital, or any of our satellite sites. It is a non-urgent and non-clinical service.

When contacting the service, please include the following information:

  • patient’s details (name, date of birth and NHS number)
  • department the enquiry relates to
  • hospital the enquiry relates to

We will not be able to investigate your enquiry without the above information. We endeavour to respond to your enquiry within 10 working days from the date the above information is provided.

You can contact the GP liaison service by email: rf.gpliaison@nhs.net 
or by calling 020 3758 2000 ext. 36015.

The GP liaison service is only open to NHS colleagues and other healthcare professionals. Please do not share these contact details with your patients.

Patient referral and appointment queries

Patients should contact our outpatient appointments call centre if they have any questions about their care. This includes information about referrals, appointments, and test results.

If the team is unable to answer a patient’s question, they will forward the call to the relevant service.

The call centre can be contacted by calling: 020 7443 9757. It is open Monday to Friday
(excluding bank holidays), 8am-6pm.

Full details can be found on our website.

View indicative waiting times   

Indicative waiting times for routine first appointments, cancer 2ww and diagnostics across north central London are available on the North Central London GP website.

To view this page, you will need to log into the website or create a account if you do not already have one.

Share your views: Start Well public consultation

There is still time to share your views on proposed changes to how and where some maternity, neonatal and children’s surgical services across north central London could be delivered in the future.

These include proposals:

  • to close maternity and neonatal services at the Royal Free Hospital or Whittington Health NHS Trust
  • to close the birthing suites at Edgware Birth Centre, while retaining antenatal and postnatal care on the Edgware Community Hospital site
  • to consolidate some surgery for babies and very young children in centres of expertise at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust and University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

The aim is to ensure patients get the very best care, in the right place at the right time for many years to come. No decisions have yet been made.

The consultation, led by North Central London Integrated Care Board and NHS England Specialised Commissioning, closes at 11.59pm on Sunday 17 March.

For more information, please visit our website.

Referral assessment service introduced for rapid access chest pain

The waiting time for patients to be seen by our rapid access chest pain service at Chase Farm Hospital and Barnet Hospital is eight to 10 weeks. 

From Monday 25 March, to improve access to the service, our rapid access chest pain clinic (RACPC) will introduce a referral assessment service (RAS) at Barnet Hospital, Chase Farm Hospital, Edgware Community Hospital, and the Royal Free Hospital.

When received, the referral will be triaged by a clinician and one of the following outcomes will take place:

  • a first out-patient appointment is required, which will be booked by the trust
  • advice is given to the referrer via e-RS
  • the referral is deemed appropriate, but needs to be booked under a different specialty - this will be organised by the trust
  • the referral is deemed inappropriate and will be sent back to the referrer

Once the referral has been triaged, we will contact the patient to confirm the outcome. If the triaging clinician needs more information about the referral, the referrer will be contacted via email.

Submitting a referral will not automatically lead to an out-patient appointment. Please advise your patients of this when you refer them.

The appointment letters for triage have been blocked and will not appear in My RFL Care (the trust’s patient portal which patients can use to view their appointment information).

The new pathway does not change how patients are referred to the service, but it will appear as a RAS in e-RS.

The information that needs to be included when referring a patient has not changed. Please continue to provide the minimum data set for a referral along with the clinical information in the referral letter. Without a fully completed referral, we will not be able to treat your patient.

If a referral letter/RACPC proforma is not attached in e-RS, we cannot accept the referral.

If you would like further information, please contact Stephanie Marfo, assistant operations manager – cardiovascular: stephanie.marfo@nhs.net or our RACPC nurses rf.racpcbookings@nhs.net

Gynaecology services Hadley Wood Hospital

Hadley Wood Hospital is part of the Royal Free London’s private patients unit. It is located in High Barnet, North London.

Leading consultants offer world-class gynaecological care within the safety of an NHS trust. Every woman is unique, and that each procedure carries its own risks and benefits. Every member of the multidisciplinary team is dedicated to ensuring each patient receives the right care at the right time.

Expert clinicians are proud to offer the following procedures: early pregnancy management, hysteroscopy, endometriosis, ovarian cysts, uterine polyps, fibroids, contraceptive and family planning services.

Please share this information with patients who might be interested.

If you would like further information, please contact Dayantha Pol, gp liaison officer: d.polenthirarajah@nhs.net, 020 7794 0500 ext. 33139

For more information, please visit the Royal Free London private patients unit website.

Diagnostic testing turnaround time

Primary care colleagues can expect to receive test results from cardiology and pathology within the following timeframes. These start when a sample is received in our laboratories, or the test has been completed. They are subject to change.

Cardiology

Royal Free Hospital 

  • 24-hour blood pressure monitoring: one week
  • 24-hour ECG: two weeks
  • Echo: two weeks
  • ECG: one week

Barnet Hospital/Chase Farm Hospital/Edgware Community Hospital 

  • 24-hour blood pressure monitoring: one week
  • 24-hour ECG: three/four weeks
  • Echo: one week
  • ECG: one week

All ECG results are sent with an automatically generated algorithm, rather than a separate clinical report. Results for the other tests listed above are sent with a cardiac physiologist report.

If you have a specific clinical question about your patients’ results, please submit an advice and guidance request via e-RS. Do not submit a request for general comment on a patient’s results.

Pathology

All RFL sites

  • Biochemistry tests: three days
  • Haematology tests: two days

If you have any questions about your patient's results', please contact the pathology results helpline:

The results helplines are open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.

For tQuest support enquiries, please email helpdesk@tdlpathology.com

Imaging

Royal Free Hospital

  • X-rays: ten days
  • Ultrasounds: two days
  • Dexa scans: three to four weeks

Barnet Hospital/Chase Farm Hospital/Potters Bar Hospital/Finchley Memorial Hospital/Edgware Community Hospital

  • X-rays: ten days
  • Ultrasounds: two days
  • Dexa scans: one to two weeks

Please ensure that paper referrals include the signature of the referring GP. We are legally unable to accept referrals without a valid signature.

For T-Quest requests a signature is not required.

The patient should be given the t-Quest printout for X-ray requests (this does not require a signature).

If you have any questions about your patient’s results, please contact the radiology teams:

Both mailboxes are monitored Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.

If you would like to receive these updates directly, please contact rf.gpliaison@nhs.net with your name, role and practice name. Alternatively, If you do not wish to receive further updates, please do the same stating this.

GP liaison service

The Royal Free London (RFL) GP liaison service is open for you as an informal route to raise an enquiry or concern about any of our services. This includes services at Barnet Hospital, Chase Farm Hospital, the Royal Free Hospital, or any of our satellite sites. It is a non-urgent and non-clinical service.

When contacting the service, please include the following information:

  • patient’s details (name, date of birth and NHS number)
  • department the enquiry relates to
  • hospital the enquiry relates to

We will not be able to investigate your enquiry without the above information. We endeavour to respond to your enquiry within 10 working days from the date the above information is provided.

You can contact the GP liaison service by email: rf.gpliaison@nhs.net or by calling

020 3758 2000 ext. 36015.

The GP liaison service is only open to NHS colleagues and other healthcare professionals. Please do not share these contact details with your patients.

Patient referral and appointment queries

Patients should contact our outpatient appointments call centre if they have any questions about their care. This includes information about referrals, appointments, and test results.

If the team is unable to answer a patient’s question, they will forward the call to the relevant service.

The call centre can be contacted by calling: 020 7443 9757. It is open Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays), 8am-6pm.

Full details can be found on our website.

Introducing patient initiated follow up for gastroenterology

From Monday 18 March, the gastroenterology inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and coeliac service will introduce the patient-initiated follow-up (PIFU) pathway at the Royal Free Hospital.

PIFU means patients have the choice of requesting follow-up appointments themselves or continue to be booked appointments by the trust. This will not affect those on urgent or cancer pathways. Patients who are added to the PIFU pathway will be set an end date by our clinicians.

If a patient has not booked a follow-up by this date, they will be discharged back to their GP or booked an appointment. If a patient is added to the PIFU pathway, they will receive a letter with the following information:

  • confirmation they have been added to the PIFU pathway 
  • red flag symptoms that would need a follow up appointment 
  • end date of their PIFU pathway 
  • contact details to arrange a follow up appointment 

This letter will also be sent to the patient’s GP.

If you would like further information, please contact Dr Raihan Mohammed, assistant operations manager for gastroenterology and endoscopy: raihan.mohammed2@nhs.net or Isobel Mason, nurse consultant in gastroenterology: isobel.mason@nhs.net

Reminder: paediatric gastroenterology referrals not accepted at Royal Free Hospital

The Royal Free Hospital paediatric gastroenterology service has not been accepting referrals from primary care since August 2023.

Please do not refer children to this service and instead contact your local paediatrician who will refer to the gastroenterology team if required.

These changes were made in line with other tertiary services across North Central London and aim to reduce the number of inappropriate referrals and reduce appointment waiting times.

If you would like further information, please contact the paediatric gastroenterology team via email:
rf-tr.paedgastro@nhs.net

The inbox is monitored Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.

Changes to referrals from GP practices

You will already be aware that the referral support services (RSS) run by North Central London Integrated Care Board (NCL ICB) have now closed and are not accepting any new referrals.

Practices are still able to access transitional support from the RSS teams until Friday 22 March.

When referring to Royal Free London services, please ensure that you refer to the e-RS directory of services for referral information about any of our services. The most up to date information will always be on this platform.

The ICB has also produced a range of materials to assist general practices including: frequently asked questions, a helpful prompt called ‘getting ready to refer directly? key considerations’, and a timeline of the key dates when changes are taking place.

The ICB practice support package outlines the range of support on offer to general practices which includes webinars, training sessions, guides, and drop-in sessions.

There is a new page on the ICB GP website where you can find the latest updates and all these resources:
RSS transition.

This new approach to referral processes aligns with the agreement across NCL of the ‘primary and secondary care interface consensus’, which launches this quarter.

The consensus document outlines the principles and best practice ways of working that we expect across our system to deliver efficient, effective, and high-quality care to patients throughout their journey, specifically as their care transfers or requires coordination between providers.

Encourage BRCA testing for patients with Jewish ancestry

Men and women over 18 years in England with Jewish ancestry (at least one Jewish grandparent) can now be tested for the BRCA gene variation.

The BRCA variation significantly increases the risk of developing several cancers – particularly breast and ovarian cancer.

People with Jewish ancestry have a 1 in 40 risk of carrying a BRCA mutation compared to the general population risk of 1 in 250. People who have the variation will be placed onto surveillance and treatment pathways.

GPs are asked to direct eligible patients to the registration page.

Patients can also call the genetic counselling hotline to get advice: 020 3437 6001, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.
The line is open until 7pm on Wednesdays.

X-ray equipment upgrade at Edgware Community Hospital

From Monday 4 March, works will begin to upgrade the x-ray equipment at Edgware Community Hospital.

The new equipment will mean a more resilient and effective service for our patients.

This will take approximately six months to complete and during this time, it may take us longer to see GP patients at the x-ray walk in service.

To help support the service, the opening hours for the walk-in GP x-ray service at Edgware Community Service will be temporarily changed. The service will be open:

  • Monday to Friday, 9am to 7pm
  • Saturday and Sunday, 9am to 7pm. On Saturdays, the service will not be open between 1pm and 2pm for patients referred by their GP.

Please advise your patients of these changes and sign post them to our website where they can see our other x-ray walk-in services.

We encourage patients to attend walk-in x-ray services at Barnet Hospital, Chase Farm Hospital, and the Community Diagnostic Centre at Finchley Memorial Hospital.

Share your views: Start Well public consultation

Share your views on proposed changes to how and where some maternity, neonatal and children’s surgical services across North Central London could be delivered in the future.

These include proposals:

  • to close maternity and neonatal services at the Royal Free Hospital or Whittington Health NHS Trust
  • to close the birthing suites at Edgware Birth Centre, while retaining antenatal and postnatal care on the Edgware Community Hospital site
  • to consolidate some surgery for babies and very young children in centres of expertise at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust and University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

The aim is to ensure patients get the very best care, in the right place at the right time for many years to come.
No decisions have yet been made.

The consultation, led by North Central London Integrated Care Board and NHS England Specialised Commissioning, closes on Sunday 17 March 2024.

For more information, please visit our website.

Proposed Royal Free London and North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust merger

Following several years of closer working between North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust and the Royal Free London group, we are now looking at how we could come together as one organisation. We believe it would enable us to go further and faster in improving services for patients and improving the health of our local community.

North Mid has been a clinical partner with the Royal Free London group since 2017 and we have been in a formal partnership since 2021. Our experience has shown that we can achieve more together than we can apart, delivering better care for local people and more opportunities for our staff.

Over the coming months we will be developing detailed plans for coming together, with North Mid potentially merging to become part of the Royal Free London group alongside Barnet Hospital, Chase Farm Hospital, and the Royal Free Hospital.

You can read more on our website.

Diagnostic testing turnaround times

Primary care colleagues can expect to receive test results from cardiology and pathology within the following timeframes. These start when a sample is received in our laboratories, or the test has been completed. They are subject to change.

Cardiology

Royal Free Hospital

  • 24-hour blood pressure monitoring: one week
  • 24-hour ECG: three weeks
  • Echo: two weeks
  • ECG: one week

Barnet Hospital/Chase Farm Hospital/Edgware Community Hospital

  • 24-hour blood pressure monitoring: one day
  • 24-hour ECG: three weeks
  • Echo: two weeks
  • ECG: one week

All ECG results are sent with an automatically generated algorithm, rather than a separate clinical report. Results for the other tests listed above are sent with a cardiac physiologist report.

If you have a specific clinical question about your patients’ results, please submit an advice and guidance request via
e-RS. Do not submit a request for general comment on a patient’s results.

Pathology

All RFL sites

  • Biochemistry tests: three days
  • Haematology tests: two days

If you have any questions about your patient's results', please contact the pathology results helpline:

The results helplines are open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.

For tQuest support enquiries, please email helpdesk@tdlpathology.com

Imaging

Royal Free Hospital

  • X-rays: ten days
  • Ultrasounds: two days
  • Dexa scans: three to four weeks

Barnet Hospital/Chase Farm Hospital/Potters Bar Hospital/Finchley Memorial Hospital/Edgware Community Hospital

  • X-rays: ten days
  • Ultrasounds: two days​​​​
  • Dexa scans: one to two weeks

Please ensure that paper referrals include the signature of the referring GP. We are legally unable to accept referrals without a valid signature.

For T-Quest requests a signature is not required.

The patient should be given the t-Quest printout for X-ray requests (this does not require a signature).

If you have any questions about your patient’s results, please contact the radiology teams:

Both mailboxes are monitored Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.

If you would like to receive these updates directly, please contact rf.gpliaison@nhs.net with your name, role and practice name. Alternatively, If you do not wish to receive further updates, please do the same stating this.

GP liaison service

The Royal Free London (RFL) GP liaison service is open for you as an informal route to raise an enquiry or concern about any of our services. This includes services at Barnet Hospital, Chase Farm Hospital, the Royal Free Hospital, or any of our satellite sites. It is a non-urgent and non-clinical service.

When contacting the service, please include the following information:

  • patient’s details (name, date of birth and NHS number)
  • department the enquiry relates to
  • hospital the enquiry relates to

We will not be able to investigate your enquiry without the above information. We endeavour to respond to your enquiry within 10 working days from the date the above information is provided.

You can contact the GP liaison service by email: rf.gpliaison@nhs.net or by calling 020 3758 2000 ext. 36015.

The GP liaison service is only open to NHS colleagues and other healthcare professionals. Please do not share these contact details with your patients.

Patient referral and appointment queries

Patients should contact our outpatient appointments call centre if they have any questions about their care. This includes information about referrals, appointments, and test results.

If the team is unable to answer a patient’s question, they will forward the call to the relevant service.

The call centre can be contacted by calling: 020 7443 9757. It is open Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays), 8am-6pm.

Full details can be found on our website.

Clinical assessment service introduced for hepatology and neurology services

The clinical assessment service (CAS) has been introduced for the neurology service at Barnet Hospital and Chase Farm Hospital, and the hepatology service at the Royal Free Hospital.

This means patients referred into these services will be clinically triaged to determine the next steps for their care.

A triaging clinician will carry out the clinical assessment during a triage appointment which does not involve the patient.

Information about the triage appointment is for GPs only and not for sharing.

CAS triage has six possible outcomes:

  • New appointment not required – letter of advice sent to GP and patient
  • New appointment not required – appointment already exists
  • New appointment not required – referral to another service (GP or RFL team)
  • First appointment required
  • First appointment required with investigations booked beforehand
  • Investigations booked with virtual review by consultant

Following CAS triage, GPs and patients will be sent a triage outcome letter. This may include clinical advice and guidance provided by the triaging clinician.

This letter will be addressed to the GP and posted to them, with a copy sent to the patient.

The neurology service at the Royal Free Hospital, and the hepatology services at Barnet Hospital and Chase Farm Hospital and general urology services across the trust plan to go live with CAS for new referrals in the coming months.

Jennifer Cross appointed medical director

We are pleased to announce that Jennifer Cross has been appointed to the substantive role of medical director at the Royal Free Hospital.

Jennifer, who has been interim medical director since July 2022, steps into the role with immediate effect.

Alongside her medical director role, Jennifer was previously Royal Free London’s chief clinical information officer, focusing on the delivery of the trust's digital strategy.

Introducing patient initiated follow up for ophthalmology

In December, our ophthalmology service introduced the PIFU pathway across the Royal Free London for specific conditions within oculoplastics and corneal services.

Diagnoses considered with clinician approval include blepharitis, dry eye disease, allergic eye disease, recurrent corneal erosion, episcleritis, recurrent herpes simplex keratitis, pterygium, inactive mild thyroid eye disease, chalazion or previous tumour excision.

PIFU means patients have the choice of requesting follow-up appointments themselves or continue to be booked appointments by the trust. This will not affect those on urgent or cancer pathways. Patients who are added to the PIFU pathway will be set an end date by our clinicians. If a patient has not booked a follow-up by this date, they will be discharged back to their optometrist/GP.

If a patient is added to the PIFU pathway, they will receive a letter with the following information:

  • confirmation they have been added to the PIFU pathway
  • red flag symptoms that would need a follow up appointment
  • end date of their PIFU pathway
  • contact details to arrange a follow up appointment

This letter will also be sent to the patient’s GP.

Breast screening - please update your records

Please ensure that your patient records are updated before you send them reminders to book a breast screening appointment.

Breast screening for women aged 50 to 71 is scheduled every three years, with the first invitation sent automatically by their 53rd birthday if they are registered with a GP practice in London. Women aged over 71 can self-refer for screening.

Your practice will be emailed when 50 or more patients are due for breast screening. When you receive this, please contact your eligible patients to advise them that they will receive an appointment invitation letter soon and encourage them to attend.

Breast screening outcome reports are sent via post, and we would be grateful if you could update your records when these are received to ensure women are only contacted to book a screening appointment when they are due for it.

If you would like additional information, please contact the North and Central and East London health promotion team at rf-tr.healthpromotion@nhs.net.

This is monitored Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm (except bank holidays).

You can also visit the London breast screening website for guidance and information: www.london-breastscreening.org.uk/Publications5

Diagnostic testing turnaround times 

Primary care colleagues can expect to receive test results from cardiology and pathology within the following timeframes. These start when a sample is received in our laboratories, or the test has been completed. They are subject to change. 

Cardiology 

Royal Free Hospital 

  • 24-hour blood pressure monitoring: one week 
  • 24-hour ECG: three weeks 
  • Echo: two weeks 
  • ECG: one week Barnet Hospital/Chase Farm Hospital/Edgware Community Hospital 
  • 24-hour blood pressure monitoring: one day 
  • 24-hour ECG: three weeks
  • Echo: two weeks
  • ECG: one week 

All ECG results are sent with an automatically generated algorithm, rather than a separate clinical report. Results for the other tests listed above are sent with a cardiac physiologist report. 

If you have a specific clinical question about your patients’ results, please submit an advice and guidance request via e-RS. Do not submit a request for general comment on a patient’s results. 

Pathology

All RFL sites 

  • Biochemistry tests: three days
  • Haematology tests: two days If you have any questions about your patient's results', please contact the pathology results helpline: 
  • Royal Free Hospital o 020 3758 2070 
  • Barnet Hospital/Chase Farm Hospital/Edgware Community Hospital 

The results helplines are open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. For tQuest support enquiries, please email helpdesk@tdlpathology.com.

Imaging 

Royal Free Hospital

  • X-rays: ten days
  • Ultrasounds: two days
  • Dexa scans: three to four weeks Barnet Hospital/Chase Farm Hospital/Potters Bar Hospital/Finchley Memorial Hospital/Edgware Community Hospital
  • X-rays: ten days 
  • Ultrasounds: two days
  • Dexa scans: one to two weeks 

Please ensure that paper referrals include the signature of the referring GP. We are legally unable to accept referrals without a valid signature. The patient should be given the T-Quest printout for X-ray requests (this does not require a signature). 

If you have any questions about your patient’s results, please contact the radiology teams: 

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Both mailboxes are monitored Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.

GP liaison service

The Royal Free London (RFL) GP liaison service is open for you as an informal route to raise an enquiry or concern about any of our services. This includes services at Barnet Hospital, Chase Farm Hospital, the Royal Free Hospital, or any of our satellite sites. It is a non-urgent and non-clinical service.

When contacting the service, please include the following information:

  • patient’s details (name, date of birth and NHS number)
  • department the enquiry relates to
  • hospital the enquiry relates to

We will not be able to investigate your enquiry without the above information. We endeavour to respond to your enquiry within 10 working days from the date the above information is provided.

You can contact the GP liaison service by email: rf.gpliaison@nhs.net or by calling: 020 3758 2000 ext. 36015.

The GP liaison service is only open to NHS colleagues and other healthcare professionals. Please do not share these contact details with your patients.

Thank you

On behalf of our staff and patients, we would like to take this opportunity to thank you for the support you have given to the Royal Free London over the past year. 

It’s been a year of challenge and change for the NHS and life at the Royal Free London has been no different.  

Ongoing work to reduce our waiting lists, persistent pressures on our emergency services and industrial action across the public sector has impacted how we provide care for our patients.  

We are hugely grateful for your ongoing support – we would not have been able to ensure the very best care for our patients without you. 

This is the last newsletter of the year; the next update will be shared in January. However, you may receive separate messages before this. 

We wish you a safe and happy festive season.

Patient referral and appointment queries

Patients should contact our outpatient appointments call centre if they have any questions about their care. This includes information about referrals, appointments, and test results.

If the team is unable to answer a patient’s question, they will forward the call to the relevant service.

The call centre can be contacted by calling: 020 7443 9757. It is open Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays), 8am-6pm.

Full details can be found on our website.

Junior doctors’ industrial action in December

Junior doctors at the Royal Free London are due to take part in a 72-hour strike from 7am on Wednesday 20 December until 7am on Saturday 23 December.

The strike action will impact all our hospitals — Barnet Hospital, Chase Farm Hospital and the Royal Free Hospital. Please be assured we are working hard to ensure we minimise disruption to services.

Emergency care will be prioritised and patients seeking urgent treatment will be seen.

Patients will be contacted directly if there are any changes to their appointments.

Full details can be found on our website.

Referring adults to the lipid service: guidance

When referring patients over the age of 16 to the Royal Free London’s adult lipid services, please ensure that you follow the guidance in the relevant form.

This sets out when a referral should be made via e-RS or if a clinical advice and guidance request should be submitted.

Discontinuation of anti-N SARS-CoV-2 (Nucleocapsid) testing

Health Services Laboratories (HSL) is no longer offering the Roche anti-N (nucleocapsid) SARS-CoV-2 testing. HSL will continue to offer the Roche quantitative anti-S (spike) SARS-CoV-2.

Full details have been provided by HSL.

For any queries, please contact Wendy Chatterton, virology service manager: wendy.chatterton@hslpathology.com

Temporary changes to Royal Free Hospital x-ray service

The opening times for the walk-in x-ray service at the Royal Free Hospital have temporarily changed.

It is currently open to GP referrals Monday to Friday, 9am to 3.30pm, except bank holidays.

We have made these changes as we are installing new state-of-the-art x-ray equipment. This will provide higher quality images and improve patient experience.

These temporary changes are expected to be in place until summer 2024.

Share your views: Start Well public consultation open

Share your views on proposed changes to how and where some maternity, neonatal and children’s surgical services across North Central London could be delivered in the future.

These include proposals:

  • to close maternity and neonatal services at the Royal Free Hospital or Whittington Health NHS Trust
  • to close the birthing suites at Edgware Birth Centre, while retaining antenatal and postnatal care on the Edgware Community Hospital site
  • to consolidate some surgery for babies and very young children in centres of expertise at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust and University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

The aim is to ensure patients get the very best care, in the right place at the right time for many years to come. No decisions have yet been made.

The consultation, led by North Central London Integrated Care Board and NHS England Specialised Commissioning, closes on Sunday 17 March 2024.

For more information, please visit our website.

Encourage your patients to register for My RFL Care Patient Portal

My RFL Care Patient Portal is a secure online system provided by the Royal Free London that allows patients to view information from their hospital record. Since its launch in 2020, over 250,000 patients have registered.

To register, patients must be a patient at the Royal Free London - Barnet Hospital, Royal Free Hospital, Chase Farm Hospital or at one of our satellite sites - 18 years and older, have a valid UK mobile number recorded on the Royal Free London's hospital system, and an NHS number to complete the registration process. When a new outpatient appointment is scheduled, eligible patients automatically receive a text message inviting them to join My RFL Care. 

Through this portal, patients can access and view various clinical documents, such as patient appointments, letters, GP discharge summaries, lab results and radiology reports. The portal ensures a swift and secure availability of results, with routine lab results accessible within seven days and pathology and radiology reports within 30 days.

The portal can be accessed from a computer, tablet, or smartphone.

We would be grateful if you could promote My RFL Care to your patients by sharing details about it during your patient consultations and displaying posters in your GP surgery.

These have a QR code which leads directly to the portal, to make it as easy as possible for patients to sign up.

Full details about My RFL Care can be found on our website.

Diagnostic testing turnaround times

Primary care colleagues can expect to receive test results from cardiology and pathology within the following timeframes. These start when a sample is received in our laboratories, or the test has been completed. They are subject to change.

Cardiology

Royal Free Hospital 

  • 24-hour blood pressure monitoring: one week
  • 24-hour ECG: three weeks
  • Echo: two weeks
  • ECG: one week

Barnet Hospital/Chase Farm Hospital/Edgware Community Hospital 

  • 24-hour blood pressure monitoring: one day
  • 24-hour ECG: three weeks
  • Echo: two weeks
  • ECG: one week

All ECG results are sent with an automatically generated algorithm, rather than a separate clinical report. Results for the other tests listed above are sent with a cardiac physiologist report.

If you have a specific clinical question about your patients’ results, please submit an advice and guidance request via e-RS. Do not submit a request for general comment on a patient’s results.

Pathology

All RFL sites

  • Biochemistry tests: three days
  • Haematology tests: two days

If you have any questions about your patient's results', please contact the pathology results helpline:

The results helplines are open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.

For tQuest support enquiries, please email helpdesk@tdlpathology.com

Imaging

Royal Free Hospital

  • X-rays: ten days
  • Ultrasounds: two days
  • Dexa scans: three to four weeks

Barnet Hospital/Chase Farm Hospital/Potters Bar Hospital/Finchley Memorial Hospital/Edgware Community Hospital

  • X-rays: ten days
  • Ultrasounds: two days
  • Dexa scans: one to two weeks

Please ensure that paper referrals include the signature of the referring GP. We are legally unable to accept referrals without a valid signature.

For T-Quest requests a signature is not required.

The patient should be given the t-Quest printout for X-ray requests
(this does not require a signature).

If you have any questions about your patient’s results, please contact the radiology teams:

Both mailboxes are monitored Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.

Patient referral and appointment queries

Patients should contact our outpatient appointments call centre if they have any questions about their care. This includes information about referrals, appointments, and test results.

If the team is unable to answer a patient’s question, they will forward the call to the relevant service.

The call centre can be contacted by calling: 020 7443 9757. It is open Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays), 8am-6pm.

New RFL website launches

After months of development and extensive engagement with a diverse range of people with different user needs, our new website is now live. Thank you to all primary care colleagues who shared their feedback.

A dedicated section has been created for GPs on the site, incorporating what you told us you would like to see. You can view this by clicking ‘For GPs’ at the top of the website on the right-hand side by clicking here.

This section includes the latest diagnostic turnaround times, GP bypass numbers for the Royal Free Hospital, contact details to follow up imaging and blood test results and some referral information.

It also includes links to other useful information such as our patient advice and liaison services, patient transport, our patient portal, finding a consultant and a service.

On some of our service pages you will be able to find generic contact details for services and referral information which is not in the GP section. Some consultant profiles have their NHS email addresses or contact details for their secretaries.

Launching the new website is just the beginning — we will constantly review and evolve it, seek feedback, listen to users, and make changes where they are needed. If you have any feedback, please let us know by emailing: rf.gpliaison@nhs.net

Gillian Smith appointed chief medical officer

We are pleased to announce that Gillian Smith has been appointed to the substantive role of chief medical officer of the RFL.

Gillian has been the interim group chief medical officer since 2022 and was previously medical director of the Royal Free Hospital. A consultant urologist by background, she has had a range of clinical and professional leadership experience with a focus on improvement and service transformation.

Reminder: changes to adult gastroenterology referrals

The RFL has changed the way direct access adult gastroenterology referrals are made.

GPs are reminded to refer Barnet Hospital and Chase Farm Hospital patients to the gastroenterology clinical assessment service via e-RS and not by email.

Referrals will be triaged by a gastroenterologist who will request the endoscopic procedure on the trust’s electronic patient record. The patient will be booked for their procedure and the results communicated to both patient and GP via letter, once a consultant has reviewed the report and any histology and biopsies are taken. The gastroenterology service will arrange on going care or discharge the patient from the service as appropriate.

If you have any queries please contact Eleanor Brothwood, service manager, on: Eleanor.brothwood@nhs.net

Lung function reporting changes

The way lung function test results are shared with GP practices has changed.

Results from the community diagnostic centre at Finchley Memorial Hospital are now being sent to GP practices via Docman Connect, instead of email.

Royal Free Hospital infectious diseases and respiratory services to launch clinical assessment service

Infectious diseases and respiratory services at the Royal Free Hospital will be launching a clinical assessment service (CAS).

The infectious diseases service will go live on Monday 20 November and the respiratory services on Monday 27 November. Patients referred into these services will be clinically triaged to determine the next steps for their care.

GPs will be able to refer patients via e-RS.

The triaging clinician will conduct the clinical assessment during a triage appointment which does not involve the patient. Information about the date or time of the triage appointment should not be shared with the patient by primary care.

CAS triage has six possible outcomes:

  • New appointment not required – letter of advice to GP and patient
  • New appointment not required – appointment already exists
  • New appointment not required – refer to another service (GP or RFL team)
  • First appointment required
  • First appointment required with investigations booked beforehand
  • Investigations booked with virtual review by consultant

GPs and patients will be sent a CAS triage outcome letter including any clinical advice and guidance provided by the triaging clinician.

We already run a CAS model across seven outpatient services, and we are seeing a positive impact on access to treatment as result. We will be rolling CAS out to further specialities in the coming year.

Guidance on labelling pathology samples

When sending a pathology sample to RFL labs, please ensure only one label is attached to the sample. If one label is not attached, this may cause delays to process the sample and share the results.

If a patient requires more than one test, the number of samples sent to our laboratories must match the number of labels generated on the tQuest form.

You can read all the details in the document attached.

Diagnostic testing turnaround times

Primary care colleagues can expect to receive test results from cardiology and pathology within the following timeframes. These start when a sample is received in our laboratories, or the test has been completed. They are subject to change.

Cardiology

Royal Free Hospital 

  • 24-hour blood pressure monitoring: one week
  • 24-hour ECG: two weeks
  • Echo: two weeks
  • ECG: one week

Barnet Hospital/Chase Farm Hospital/Edgware Community Hospital 

  • 24-hour blood pressure monitoring: one day
  • 24-hour ECG: three weeks
  • Echo: two weeks
  • ECG: one week

All ECG results are sent with an automatically generated algorithm, rather than a separate clinical report. Results for the other tests listed above are sent with a cardiac physiologist report.

If you have a specific clinical question about your patients’ results, please submit an advice and guidance request via e-RS. Do not submit a request for general comment on a patient’s results.

Pathology

All RFL sites

  • Biochemistry tests: three days
  • Haematology tests: two days

If you have any questions about your patient's results, please contact the pathology results helpline:

The results helplines are open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.

For tQuest support enquiries, please email helpdesk@tdlpathology.com

Imaging

Royal Free Hospital

  • X-rays: four days
  • Ultrasounds: two days
  • Dexa scans: three to four weeks

Barnet Hospital/Chase Farm Hospital/Potters Bar Hospital/Finchley Memorial Hospital/Edgware Community Hospital

  • X-rays: four days
  • Ultrasounds: two days
  • Dexa scans: one to two weeks

Please ensure that paper referrals include the signature of the referring GP. We are legally unable to accept referrals without a valid signature.

If you have any questions about your patient’s results, please contact the radiology teams:

Both mailboxes are monitored Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.

GP liaison service

The Royal Free London (RFL) GP liaison service is open for you as an informal route to raise an enquiry or concern about any of our services. This includes services at Barnet Hospital, Chase Farm Hospital, the Royal Free Hospital, or any of our satellite sites. It is a non-urgent and non-clinical service.

When contacting the service, please include the following information:

  • patient’s details (name, date of birth and NHS number)
  • department the enquiry relates to
  • hospital the enquiry relates to

We will not be able to investigate your enquiry without the above information. We endeavour to respond to your enquiry within 10 working days from the date the above information is provided.

You can contact the GP liaison service by email: rf.gpliaison@nhs.net or by calling: 020 3758 2000 ext. 36015.

The GP liaison service is only open to NHS colleagues and other healthcare professionals. Please do not share these contact details with your patients.

Patient referral and appointment queries

Patients should contact our outpatient appointments call centre if they have any questions about their care. This includes information about referrals, appointments, and test results.

If the team is unable to answer a patient’s question, they will forward the call to the relevant service. 

The call centre can be contacted by calling: 020 7443 9757. It is open Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays), 8am-6pm.

Visit this link to access more.

New group chief executive announced

Peter Landstrom has been appointed the new group chief executive of the RFL.

Peter has been the acting chief executive since May, after he joined the trust in 2022 as group chief delivery officer and deputy group chief executive.

He has held a number of senior leadership roles and has a strong NHS operational background.

Read more about his appointment. 

Changes to breast screening invitations

The NHS Breast Screening Programme is now sending invitations for breast screening to women who are aged between 50 and 70 for screening by a specific date regardless of the GP practice they are registered with.

Before the pause of the London NHS Breast Screening Programme in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, women were invited for screening in batches based on their registered GP practice.

The changes to invitations has a benefit for the women invited as they will be called every three years when they are due for screening. For GP practices, it may mean that your eligible women will not be invited as one large cohort once every three years. Instead, they will be invited as one large cohort but also in smaller numbers throughout the three-year screening round. To help reduce demand following the pandemic, some women are being invited up to 12 months earlier than their test due date.

To book, change, or cancel an appointment, or for general queries, women should contact the London breast screening programme appointment hub on 020 3758 2024 or by visiting www.london-breastscreening.org.uk.

Chase Farm Hospital urgent treatment centre opening hours

From Monday 16 October, we will be reinstating the original opening hours for the Chase Farm Hospital urgent treatment centre (UTC).

The centre will be open from 8am to 10pm and patients will be booked in until 9pm. Please advise patients not to attend the UTC after 9pm.

To help better manage the demand for the UTC, and to ensure patients are receiving the right care in the right place, we are continuing to advise patients to contact their GP about dressing changes. The UTC is continuing to do first dressings and changing second, complex, dressings or those which have originated from the UTC.

If your patients need urgent medical assistance and their condition is not life-threatening, please ask them to call 111 or (for those aged five and over) visit 111.nhs.uk.

Docman go-live - emergency department discharge summaries

As many of you will be aware, the Royal Free London has gone live with Docman Connect to standardise all clinical correspondence to GP practices.

Following a successful pilot, from Wednesday 4 October, all practices within North Central London Integrated Care System and Hertfordshire and West Essex Integrated Care System started receiving emergency discharge summaries via this platform. You have been receiving inpatient discharge summaries since Thursday 6 July.

We will share a further update when we start sending outpatient clinical correspondence via Docman Connect.

This means that you will no longer receive email or hard copy letters if you have the Docman Connect system.

If you have any queries, please contact your Docman support team in the first instance. They will contact the Royal Free London on your behalf if they need to.

New prolonged jaundice referral form

The Royal Free Hospital has introduced a new referral form for babies with suspected prolonged jaundice.

Please use this referral form and return the completed form to: rf-tr.prolongedjaundicereferrals@nhs.net.

Diagnostic testing turnaround times

Primary care colleagues can expect to receive test results from cardiology and pathology within the following timeframes. These start when a sample is received in our laboratories, or the test has been completed. They are subject to change.

Cardiology

  • Royal Free Hospital
  • 24-hour blood pressure monitoring: one week 24-hour ECG: two weeks
  • Echo: two weeks
  • ECG: one week

Barnet Hospital / Chase Farm Hospital / Edgware Community Hospital

  • 24-hour blood pressure monitoring: one day
  • 24-hour ECG: three weeks
  • Echo: two weeks
  • ECG: one week

All ECG results are sent with an automatically generated algorithm, rather than a separate clinical report. Results for the other tests listed above are sent with a cardiac physiologist report.

If you have a specific clinical question about your patients’ results, please submit an advice and guidance request via e-RS. Do not submit a request for general comment on a patient’s results.

Pathology

All RFL sites

  • Biochemistry tests: three days
  • Haematology tests: two days

If you have any questions about your patient's results, If you have any questions about your patient's results, please contact pathology:

Royal Free Hospital

o  020 3758 2070

Barnet Hospital / Chase Farm Hospital / Edgware Community Hospital

The results helplines are open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. For tQuest support enquiries, please email helpdesk@tdlpathology.com.

Imaging

  • Royal Free Hospital
  • X-rays: ten days Ultrasounds: two days
  • Dexa scans: three to four weeks

Barnet Hospital / Chase Farm Hospital / Potters Bar Hospital / Finchley Memorial Hospital / Edgware Community Hospital

  • X-rays: ten days
  • Ultrasounds: two days
  • Dexa scans: one to two weeks

Please ensure that paper referrals include the signature of the referring GP. We are legally unable to accept referrals without a valid signature. The patient should be given the t-Quest printout for X-ray requests (this does not require a signature).

If you have any questions about your patient’s results, please contact the radiology teams:

Royal Free Hospital

Barnet Hospital/Chase Farm Hospital/Potters Bar Hospital/Finchley Memorial Hospital/Edgware Community Hospital

Both mailboxes are monitored Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm..

Receive our monthly newsletter

A monthly newsletter for primary care is produced. This includes operational updates such as changes to referral pathways, service changes such as opening times and key contact information. 

To receive updates straight to your inbox, please email rf.gpliaison@nhs.net with your name, job role and GP practice name. Please note, we are unable to add personal email addresses to this list.