RAS and TRAQS Patient Advisor

at  NHS Shropshire Telford and Wrekin Integrated Care Board

The Referral Assessment Service (RAS) and Telford Referral and Quality Service (TRAQS) manage GP and Community Optician referrals for patients registered to a medical practice within the Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin locality.
The RAS service currently support 40 Shropshire GP practices, as well as 10 Welsh Border practices. TRAQS currently support 13 practices within Telford and Wrekin.
Once it has been decided that a referral is necessary, they are created electronically by the GP or optician who send these directly to RAS or TRAQS; dependant on the medical practice a patient is registered to. The referral will be reviewed by one of our fully trained staff to ensure all the relevant information has been received and will be processed to the appropriate provider.
RAS and TRAQS enables patients to be seen in the right place, first time. This may be in a GP practice setting, in a community health clinic, or at a hospital – whichever is seen as the most appropriate and meets the needs of the patient’s referral.
This role involves providing support and advice to patients to assist them with the booking of their appointment for further care, enabling patients to make the right choice in where and when they wish to be seen. RAS process the majority of referrals from GP practices in Shropshire in addition to managing a referral contract for Welsh Border patients. TRAQS serve the same function for Primary Care within Telford and Wrekin and in addition process urgent suspected cancer referrals via e-RS.

Both teams within the ICB, combined, are made up of a Team Lead, a Clinical Nurse Specialist, 3 Supervisors and 16 Call Handlers and Processors.

• The purpose of the team member is to be the first point of contact within a referrals & choice service which:

provides an excellent patient experience;
ensures safe, prompt, and confidential processing of referrals & associated information; and
promotes effective working relationships with GP practices and Providers
Receive & process referrals from GP practices via e- Referrals, as per the Standard Operational Procedures (SOPs), ensuring that the referral packages are complete and inputting all relevant data to the e-Referrals IT systems
Engage with patients (both by calling-out & receiving telephone calls) who require a first out-patient consultant appointment, enabling them firstly to make an informed choice of Provider and to book an appointment, using SOPs and standard call-scripts

Please refer the Job description for details