Scotland strains to hit e-referral target

NHS Scotland is increasing its rate of electronic management of outpatient referrals, but needs to do so more quickly to hit its target

The chief executive's annual report for 2008-09 says the service is aiming to ensure that 90% of new GP outpatient referrals to consultant led secondary care are managed electronically by December 2010.

While it does not provide the precise figure for this, it does measure the percentage of referrals through the Scottish Care Information (SCI) Gateway – the national system for integrating primary and secondary care – and estimates that if this reaches 95% then it will achieve the 90% figure for new referrals.

At the end of March 2009 the SCI figure was 80.8%, up from 72.7% a year earlier. While this indicates that the service will fall short of the target, the report states: "NHS boards have local delivery plans in place to continue the current rate of increase until December 2010 to achieve this aspect of the target."