Advice and guidance has the potential to improve care for patients

Salisbury discusses the advice and guidance (A&G) system from a primary care perspective.1In our department the system works well in getting patients to the right clinic at the right time. Problems we encounter are the quality of referral or information provided. It is often obvious that the referring clinician has not seen the patient face-to-face or that the referrer is a practice nurse, advanced clinical practitioner, advanced nurse practitioner, or community nurse or podiatrist whose knowledge of the red flags we need to see in the referral is limited or the referral vague. “Please see this patient with leg pain and swelling,” is a common one.Like any system, A&G is only as good as the information put into it. Sometimes that is outstanding and we can give a direct answer. More often we need to have clarification from the clinician in front of the patient. We all recognise that the…
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