Referral Information

Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust > Our GP Services > Practice Support > Referral Information

Below is a guide for GPs looking to refer patients to the Trust for treatment – whether that’s urgent or non-urgent care.
We have a number of services that provide avenues of care that can be accessed directly by patients, or via a healthcare professional.

Care Navigation Centre (CNC)
The CNC is one of the first points of call for patients, GPs and healthcare professionals and offers a range of services. The caller will be directed to the most appropriate one for their needs.
It’s open seven days a week between 8am and 8pm and can be accessed by calling 0121 507 2664.

The range of services are below:

iCares (Integrated Care Service): 0121 507 2664, seven days a week, between 8am and 8pm
iCares is a service and an approach to managing adults with long term conditions irrespective of their diagnosis, location or age. It covers a range of pathways (admission avoidance, rehabilitation, reablement, elderly frail,  head injury, stroke,  falls and bone health,  progressive neurology,  care management, therapy and case management into end of life care,  wheelchair service, readmissions avoidance). It includes a range of staff including nurses and therapists providing specialist community interventions which will: avoid unnecessary admissions to hospital, help maintain health and wellbeing, improve independence and function.

Care Homes Team: 0121 507 2664, seven days a week, between 8am and 8pm
Care Homes Team is a multi -professional team, consisting of nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists and support workers. The main focus is on long term condition management, reablement and proactive interventions to support admission avoidance in care homes and provide support to care homes to keep their residents at home.

Connected Palliative Care (CPC): 0121 507 2664, seven days a week, between 8am and 8pm
The service offers advice and support to primary care (GPs), care homes and your local hospital, so that healthcare professionals are skilled and able to help patients cope with their life-limiting illness. The team also signpost patients, carers and professionals to services that provide care, advice and equipment. This includes sitting services, befriending, domestic support and welfare rights advice. There is an out of hours service between 8pm and 8am to provide an urgent response for patients in crisis.

District Nursing Service: 0121 507 2664, seven days a week, between 8am and 8pm
The Sandwell District Nursing team provide care to housebound patients who are unable to access services via normal routes.  They offer a wide range of nursing activities, delivered by highly skilled nurses to patients.  The Sandwell District Nursing Service is comprised of seven teams spread across the borough and are able to offer: treatment of wounds; leg ulcer care; wound Care; IV therapy; blood tests; end of life and palliative care; injections; continence care/assessment and promotion of self-care.  The Sandwell District Nursing team are part of the wider iCares service and work with them to provide the necessary nursing care.

Community Continence Service: 0121 507 2664, seven days a week, between 8am and 6pm excluding Bank Holidays. For 24/7 home delivery, please leave a message outside normal working hours
The Community Continence Service provides professional advice, support and education to Sandwell patients about promoting continence (controlling the bladder and bowels) and managing incontinence. Individuals can self-refer if they wish, however they must be over the age of 18 and registered with a Sandwell GP.

Foot Health: 0121 507 2664 between 8am and 6pm Monday to Friday, excluding Bank Holidays
The service cares for a wide range of foot and lower limb problems amongst the population of Sandwell and West Birmingham community. The team provides a number of specialist clinics tailored to each patients need including: nail surgery, neurological foot service, biomechanics, diabetic foot care, rheumatology and podopaediatric (a specialist area of podiatry that specifically focuses on the developing lower limb in children) clinics. Any patients with an active diabetic foot ulceration should be referred to both the Foot Health team and the Diabetic Foot Clinic.

Musculoskeletal (MSK) Physiotherapy: 0121 507 2664 between 8am and 6pm Monday to Friday excluding Bank Holidays
The Community Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy Service helps patients with an MSK condition which can be as a result of by injury, illness or disability through movement, exercise, manual therapy, education and advice to support patients manage pain and improve function in addition to preventing re-injury and promoting health and wellbeing.

Community Respiratory: 0121 507 2664, 8am and 6pm Monday to Friday. Sat/Sun Bank Holidays 8.30am and 4.30pm
The Community Respiratory Service treats Sandwell residents with breathing problems.  The service provides a holistic approach to those living with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), asthma, bronchiectasis and interstitial lung disease (ILD).  Patients are seen in community-based clinics and also in their own homes for those who are unable to leave their residence.

Community Heart Failure Service: 0121 507 2664, between 8am and 6pm Monday to Friday and Sat/Sun/Bank Holidays between 8am and 4pm
Both the acute and community service assess patients and help them with managing their medications, lifestyle support, psychological support, blood tests, and electro-cardiograms (recording electrical activity in the heart). The team provides care for patients with a combination of home visits and telephone contact. Community clinics are also run where patients are seen in a general practice or health centre by a specialist nurse.

Wheelchair Service: 0121 507 2664 between 8am and 6pm, Monday to Friday, excluding Bank holidays
Provide mobility and postural assessment and solutions for people with a Sandwell GP requiring a wheelchair for full time use inside their own home. Support both adults and children with a Sandwell GP.

NHS e-Referral Service
The NHS e-Referral Service allows patients to book appointments online.
The service can be accessed via: https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/hospitals/book-an-appointment/

The following services are accessed via a GP or healthcare professional only.  

Urgent Community Response Team (UCR): 0121 507 2664, seven days a week, between 8am and 8pm
The service responds to crisis referrals for falls, decompensation of frailty, reduced function, deconditioning, reduced mobility, palliative end of life crisis, urgent equipment provision, confusion, delirium, urgent catheter care, urgent diabetes and paid carer breakdown.

Single Point of Access (SPA): 0121 507 3301, seven days a week, between 8am and 8pm
Aimed at helping healthcare professionals arrange the correct care for both urgent and emergency referrals but DOES NOT replace routine outpatients’ referral. The team help to prevent avoidable admissions and supports patients in the community with longstanding condition or acute presentation. Following the call, the patient will then sit under the care of the SPA team who will ensure that the patient is seen by the appropriate team/speciality to meet their needs.

Virtual Wards (Adult/Paediatrics/Palliative Care): 0121 507 2664, seven days a week, between 8am and 8pm (patient referred into Virtual Ward by SWB NHS Trust staff only)
Virtual wards, which include Hospital at Home, are a safe and efficient alternative to NHS bedded care. Virtual wards support patients, who would otherwise be in hospital, to receive the acute care and treatment they need in their own home.
We have five adult Virtual Wards which are for respiratory infections, frailty, cardiology and EPICENTRE (Emergency Point of Care Testing and Treatment without Transfer To Hospital). We also have a Paediatric Virtual Ward team and a Palliative Care Virtual Ward team.