The primary objective of the Urgent Referral clinic is to provide speedy access and effective care to all adult and paediatric patients aged above two years old with urgent ENT problems. We do not provide a walk-in service.
The clinic is designed to treat short term (usually less than a week) and severe conditions, such as those listed below:
Haemorrhage
- Nasal: non-arrested epistaxis episodes
- Ear: due to trauma, surgery or infection
- Throat: due to trauma or surgery
Acute infections
- all acute infections pertaining to ear, nose and throat
- e.g. otitis externa, acute tonsillitis, peritonsillar abscess and acute nasal discharge
Non-acute airway obstruction
Acute vertigo
Foreign bodies (suspected or proved)
The urgent referral clinic is unlikely to provide effective and satisfactory treatment on non-urgent ENT conditions. These conditions often require regular follow up and extensive investigation where Ther Royal National ENT Hospital provides relevant dedicated outpatient clinical service. These non urgent ENT conditions include:
- Long term vertigo
- Tinnitus
- Chronic sinusitis
- Long term hearing loss
- Chronic eustachian tube dysfunction
- Chronic aural discharge
- Aural wax impaction
Patients with suspected malignancy should not be referred to urgent referral clinic. Instead, these patients should be referred to relevant clinic under the ‘two week policy.’
The Urgent Referral clinic is not a walk-in clinic. If you wish to be seen, please contact your GP to be formally referred. We accept referrals for adults and children aged two years and above.
The Urgent Referral clinic is unlikely to provide effective and satisfactory treatment for non-urgent ENT conditions. These conditions often require regular follow-up and extensive investigation, and are better managed in dedicated outpatient clinics at the Royal National ENT Hospital. Non-urgent ENT conditions include:
- Long-term hearing loss
- Long-term vertigo
- Tinnitus
- Eustachian tube dysfunction
- Chronic ear discharge
- Aural wax impaction
- Chronic sinusitis
Patient contact
General enquiries
Address
The urgent referral clinic
Royal National ENT and Eastman Dental Hospitals
47-49 Huntley Street
London
WC1E 6DG
GP contact
Other referral information
- The Urgent Referral clinic is a SHO-led service that can offer short-term management of acute ENT conditions in patients over 2 years of age.
- The Urgent Referral clinic is not a 2WW service - please refer on to an appropriate 2WW pathway for suspected malignancy.
- The Urgent Referral clinic does not offer long-term follow-up management, and is not able to make any onward referrals to ENT clinics. If further treatment is required, GPs will be required to do this through NHS e-Referral System (e-RS).
- The Urgent Referral clinic is not a walk-in service. All patients need formal referral:
GPs – Please make referrals via the NHS e-Referral Service (e-RS), selecting the urgent referral clinic and attaching a completed urgent referral form. For any patients that need to be seen urgently on the day, please contact the ENT SHO on-call doctor. If accepted, you will still have to complete a referral via the NHS e-Referral Service (e-RS) with a completed urgent referral form attached. Please indicate that you have spoken to the ENT SHO on-call doctor at the top of the form with date and approximate time of the call.
Other Referrers – Please contact the ENT SHO on-call doctor or the Urgent Referrals Coordinator on 020 3456 5200. Only if accepted by the ENT SHO on-call doctor, should you send a completed urgent referral form to the team coordinator by email uclh.urcreferrals.rntne@nhs.net
Referral address
Urgent referral clinic
Royal National ENT and Eastman Dental Hospital
47-49 Huntley Street
London
WC1E 6DG
