Advice & Refer
One front door. The faster, simpler way to manage Advice & Guidance and referrals.
About Advice & Refer
Advice & Refer is Consultant Connect’s integrated solution for managing Advice & Guidance (A&G) and referrals through a single, advice-first front door, fully integrated with e-RS and purpose-built to meet elective SPoA requirements without replacing the systems your clinicians already use every day.
A fully managed SPoA solution, using local consultants and, where needed, out-of-area consultants from the National Consultant Network, so specialty-level SPoA performance is achieved without you having to build new infrastructure or find additional local capacity.
It is now the UK’s most widely used Enhanced Advice & Refer service, operating across 120 hospitals, 11,000 consultants and 5,600 GP practices, covering 45 million NHS patients.
Why choose Advice & Refer?
It gives referrers a single route for specialist advice and referrals, with a choice of channels, rapid specialist advice and flexible clinical capacity through the National Consultant Network when local teams need it most, all within a model supporting the elective SPoA requirements set out by NHS England and built for the national shift to advice-first care.
For commissioners
- A managed service that supports the elective SPoA requirements without new infrastructure
- Fully integrated with eRS, so advice and referral activity flows through the system your teams already use, no parallel workflow to manage
- No extra local admin or operational burden, the service is run for you
- Flexible, on-demand clinical capacity via the National Consultant Network, scaled to local demand
For GPs & Primary Care
- No new tools for clinicians to learn and use
- Choice of channel: Clinicians can choose between phone calls, messaging or traditional written A&G
- Easy to use, with no training required
- Rapid, reliable advice calls are answered in under 30 seconds and written queries within 2 days on average
- 70% of A&G queries avoid an unnecessary referral, ensuring patients get the right care first time
For Secondary Care
- No new tools for clinicians to learn and use
- Choice of channels for responding to advice requests
- A faster, easy-to-use e-RS interface for specialists
- One front door for A&G and referrals
- Enhanced pro-formas for better quality referrals
- Flexible, on-demand clinical capacity via the National Consultant Network, scaled to local need
Advice & Refer vs e-RS Native
Proof it works: an advice-first SPoA in dermatology
From March 2025 to May 2026, one Trust ran its routine dermatology pathway through Advice & Refer as a single advice-first front door.
The results:
- 8,000+ cases managed through the front door
- 58% returned to the requesting clinician with specialist guidance – no referral, RTT clock, or appointment needed
- 142 consultant days and 71 admin days freed up
- A&G backlog cut from four months to zero
- Referrals are now answered within 2–3 working days
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