Referrals

The following information is for non-palliative Lymphoedema patients.  If you require Lymphoedema services for a patient who is palliative, they should be referred direct to Dorothy House by using the referral process outlined above.

Non-palliative Lymphoedema referrals can be made by GPs or Allied Health Care Professionals, in consultation with the patient’s GP. All patients must be in agreement with the referral and self-referrals are not accepted for this service.

Make a referral:

Referrals will be accepted only following completion of the correct referral form along with a recent patient medical summary and any appropriate recent letters, scans and blood test results. Any incomplete referral forms will be returned for further information and no action will be taken by the Lymphoedema Service until this is satisfactorily completed.

For patients registered with a Wiltshire CCG GP:

Dorothy House no longer offers this service. The provider is:
Wiltshire Health and Care
Tissue Viability and Lymphoedema Service
To refer, email: whc.lymphoedema@nhs.net

For patients registered with a Somerset CCG GP (East & Central Mendip only):

GPs who have a non-palliative patient in the East and Central Mendip area, please download the referral form below for the acceptance criteria.

If a patient decides to take up any offer of our support, for administrative and professional practice purposes, we need to record and store a certain amount of personal information about them on this database. This will include their name, address, date of birth, GP and consultations with professionals. We’re a multi-disciplinary team so all staff involved in their care need to have access to their records in order to provide coordinated and appropriate care and support.

If a patient is receiving support from us and if any of their healthcare professionals (ie a district nurse, GP surgery, or other health and social care staff) also use SystmOne as their clinical database system, we encourage full sharing of clinical information.

A patient’s records can be shared safely and efficiently between the different organisations when consent has been given to use SystmOne.

Sharing your patient record enables:

• Prompt access to relevant information leading to fewer delays in the provision of care
• Information to be up-to-date and consistent
• Improved communication between the healthcare professionals involved in providing care
• Greater accuracy with a reduced risk of critical information, such as allergies, being missed
• More efficient use of clinical and administrative time with less duplication

Depending on what a patient has agreed, there are two ways in which their information can be shared:

Sharing IN = This controls whether information made shareable can be viewed by Dorothy House/RUH SPCT

Sharing OUT = This controls whether information recorded by Dorothy House/RUH SPCT can be shared with other services using SystmOne

It is your decision as to who can see what information.