Urgent Warning Redirection

eConsult is allowing practices to accept urgent warning eConsults into their Smart Inbox queue rather than patients being redirected to call the practice. Patients that need to call 999 or got to A&E will still be stopped and prompted to call 999/attend A&E.

The aim is to reduce the number of calls practices receive from patients being 'kicked out' of eConsult and allow the patients to submit their eConsults and for the practice to view these submissions on the day. Patients would previously have been prompted to get medical advice sooner than the 48 hours response rate.

Once the patient has submitted their eConsults these urgent warning redirected eConsults will appear in the main queue in the Smart Inbox, but highlighted in red. 

We strongly advise that practices: 

• review all Urgent eConsult reports on the day;
• check the Flagged Urgent Folder in the Smart Inbox for at least 1 hour after the feature is switched off (to allow for eConsults in progress to be submitted);
• send an acknowledgement message to patients that they have received their eConsult (for example using templated messages), to minimise patient concerns and callbacks.