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Acute neurosurgery referrals

Our Neurosurgery Acute Referrals system is for inter-hospital use only. To access it, you must use Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) on a PC connected to an NHS hospital network.

GPs and physiotherapists wishing to make urgent or emergency neurosurgery referrals should send patients to their nearest Emergency Department for assessment.

How to make an urgent referral: online only

  1. Send imaging electronically to King’s.
  2. Refer the patient using the Neurosurgery Acute Referral system.
  3. Management plans are updated continuously on the referral system. Please log back in to the system to see the plan. If there is an emergency referral that requires urgent neurosurgical opinion, please call 020 3299 4207 and speak to the on-call Neurosurgical Registrar.

Emergency referrals

When to make an emergency referral

A referral changes from urgent to emergency if the patient’s condition is immediately life-threatening. If the answer to one or more of these questions is ‘yes’, refer the patient as an emergency:

  • Does the SpR or consultant responsible for the patient consider this to be a life-threatening emergency?
  • Does the patient have a deteriorating consciousness level?
  • Does the patient have cauda equine syndrome or cord compression?
  • Does the patient have a blocked shunt?
  • Does the patient have a head injury with a significant lesion on CT scanning?

How to make an emergency referral

  1. Send imaging electronically to King’s.
  2. Call 020 3299 4207 and speak to the on-call Neurosurgical Registrar.
  3. Once you have spoken to the on-call Neurosurgical Registrar, add an entry for the patient to the Neurosurgery Acute Referral system.

Using the Neurosurgery Acute Referrals system

User guide and support

Go to Neurosurgery Acute Referral system

Request a login

You can request a login if you need to make inter-hospital neurosurgical referrals to King’s and you have an nhs.net email account. If you need to set up an nhs.net email account, visit www.nhs.net

Routine neurosurgery referrals

Contact the relevant service directly: