Cancer Referral Templates

The Department of Health has recently issued a series of Cancer Referral Proformas for use when making urgent referrals for suspected cancer.

The following Word documents match the proformas, but contain Vision merge fields and check boxes and "picklists" to enable you to complete the referral from within the patient record. They are available to download from our website www.inps.co.uk. Go to the Downloads section, General, right click on one letter and Save Target As. Save into the p:\wordproc\template.

Suspected Brain Tumour Referral Form Refcns.doc

Suspected Children’s Tumours Referral Form - Refpaed.doc

Suspected Colorectal Cancer Referral Form - Refcolo.doc

Suspected Gynaecological Cancer Referral Form - Refgyn.doc

Suspected Haematology Malignancy Referral Form - Refhaem.doc

Suspected Head & Neck Cancer Referral Form - Refheadneck.doc

Suspected Lung Cancer Referral Form - Reflung.doc

Suspected Sarcoma Referral Form - Refsarc.doc

Suspected Skin Cancer Referral Form - Refderm.doc

Suspected Upper GU Cancer Referral Form - RefUpgi.doc

Suspected Urology Cancer Referral Form - Refurol.doc

All documents are in Word 97 (Office 97) format and contain Vision merge marks, check boxes and drop down form fields. You will need to read the rest of this section (or right click and Print) to help you fill the fields in.

You must be using Word, not Vision Editor, as the word-processing system in Vision.

1. Copy the files - The documents are in zip format. After downloading the files, unzip and copy to p:\wordproc\template.
2. Please read the Notes section at the end before using the template documents. These remind you to enter the Fax number to where you are referring, PCG code and practice fax code.
3. Using the templates on the Referral screen - On the Referral screen, click the icon to add a letter and choose the appropriate template from the list of those offered.

   Important - At this stage, you may see an Open Data source screen. If so, please refer to Open Data Source error when opening Word templates in Vision for instructions on how to proceed.

4. Vision will merge patient and practice details in the top section. When this process has finished, the document can be completed.

   As well as "merge marks" for patient details, the templates contain the following Word functions:

   Check Boxes

   Drop Down Form Fields

5. In order to use these you must have the Forms toolbar available on screen. Click on View, Toolbars and ensure that the Forms toolbar is marked with a tick.

   This is the Forms Toolbar – the "padlock" icon at the end is the Protect Form icon

6. To enter data into the Check Box Fields: With Protect Form "pressed", you click once to check or uncheck any of the checkboxes.
7. To select from Drop Down Form Fields: With Protect Form "pressed", click in the box and select the appropriate entry.

   Refer to Option to protect or unprotect the document. You can decide whether referral letters, at the workstation you are working on, will open 'protected' or unprotected', depending on the way it suits your work.

   On each referral form, there is a Drop Down Form Field for First Language. The default is English, so you only need to change it if this is inappropriate.

   On the Suspected Upper GI Cancer Referral Form, you will also find two drop down form fields in the section Nature of Dyspepsia to enable you to record Duration.

   You can edit any of the content of these fields using Form Field Options (see Notes section).

8. To enter data into "text" fields: With Protect Form "unpressed", you can enter or amend details in any section that is not a check box., eg. Hospital Number, Age, Comments or fields labelled Other in the clinical sections. You can also amend any details that are filled in by merging.
9. Sending the referral - Depending on your system setup, you can now either:
   • Print the document and send via your FAX machine
   • FAX from within Word, using File, Send to, Fax Recipient
   • If you have an NHSnet connection, you can E-mail from within Word. Click File, Send to, Mail Recipient.

     Note - Please read these notes before using the referral templates.

Before using the referral templates, you should edit each to fill in details that are unique to your practice.

FAX Enter the FAX number for the referral centre.

PCG Code This is not available to merge from the patient record. If you have only one GP, enter the details and save. If you have several GPs, you may wish to set up a Drop Down Form field so that you can choose the appropriate code for the referring GP.

The Drop Down Form field icon is third from the left. The Form Field Options icon is fourth from the left.

In the field next to PCG code, click the Drop Down Form Field icon on the Forms toolbar. This will insert a grey box. Click Form Field Options. Type the first entry for your picklist and click Add. Repeat for any other entries.

Hint: When compiling a Drop Down Form Field list, the first entry is always the "default" entry. If there is no sensible default, add an entry which is just a "space", and move this to be the first entry on the list. This will leave your field blank by default.

Practice Fax number - Enter your practice FAX number on each template and save

Merged Fields – Information about source

Referring doctor - This is picked up from Referral Clinician on the referral screen.

Date of Referral - This is the event date from the Referral screen.

Practice details - The Practice name and address are merged automatically from Master File Maintenance.

Patient details - Patient details are merged from Registration details. Currently only the patient’s main Home telephone can be merged, so any additional communication numbers must be entered afterwards

Practice Phone Number – Is merged from Practice Details in Master File Maintenance. It is usually pre-fixed Business when merged.