NHS online referrals hit six million

The NHS online referral system, Choose and Book, has recently passed six million patient appointments made since its initial introduction in 2004.

In the second week of January, the total number of appointments made through the system had increased by one million since November 2007, according to NHS tech agency, Connecting for Health.

Choose and Book allows patients to book appointments and referrals online and choose the place, date and time that suits them best.

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They are given a choice of hospital and the next available appointment, meaning the process of waiting to hear for an appointment can be avoided.

All NHS hospitals now use Choose and Book while 90 per cent of GPs in England are also on the system, making it a standard way of managing referrals.

Choose and Book is one of numerous tech projects under the £12.4bn NHS National Programme for IT (NPfIT).

Other projects include the Electronic Prescription Service and the Spine patient records service, which is now beginning to be rolled out.

Richard Granger, the director general of NPfIT is due to step down later this year, leaving a significant legacy.