Surrey Downs CCG has selected System C to supply and implement the Medway Proxima patient management system in order to automate its patient referral processes.

It is looking to Proxima’s Choose and Book service to run a secure electronic primary care clinical triage and booking service, at the same time as significantly reducing CCG time and support costs. The CCG’s aim is to use the Proxima software to provide a referral service which combines clinical knowledge, local provider knowledge, education and informatics capabilities in order to integrate referral pathways across the healthcare system.

At present, Surrey Downs manages GP referrals manually. Using Medway Proxima, the CCG will for the first time be able to automatically publish its referral services on NHS Choose and Book, which will in turn allow GPs to send in automated referral bookings.

A team of CCG clinicians will effectively intercept the bookings and triage all non-urgent first outpatient referrals to the most appropriate service. A CCG-hosted telephony service will then call patients to offer appointment choice, and subsequently make and confirm the booking. 

Majorie De Vries from Surrey Downs CCG said, “Medway Proxima will allow us to automate and improve our patient referral system at the same time as allowing us to apply clinical expertise and local provider knowledge to the referral process. This is all about increasing efficiency for the benefit of our patients.

“Proxima will also provide us and our GPs with valuable reporting information and data on referral activity.”

The CCG has signed a three year contract with System C. Work has just started on configuring the new system and is due for completion early in the New Year. 

Surrey Downs selected the software for its functionally rich and reliable Choose and Book interface. It was also important that Proxima facilitates use of the new NHS e-Referral Service, due for launch by the HSCIC in Spring 2015. The software complies with relevant standards such as the NICE national clinical guidelines and national telephony standards.  

Markus Bolton, joint CEO of System C, said, “We are delighted to be working in partnership with Surrey Downs CCG to deliver their Choose and Book and electronic referral services. Many CCGs operate services like these manually and we are pleased to be able to provide a low cost solution to help them automate.”