David Guest wrote:
Hmm, interesting thread. At first I would have thought this was clearly illegal. HeSA and HIC keep telling us so. For a valid referral the Feds require a HeSA individual certificate signed document or a piece of paper. However a non-HeSA signed electronic document is certainly a prima facie case that such a document "exists". When the HIC inspectors turn up and demand the referral document, the specialist can argue that it cannot be found but they will get a copy printed and signed by the GP straight away.
there wouldn't appear to be latitude to offer "here's a copy we whipped up later"; i wouldn't expect the hic to agree to this, because their requirements are stated by law and don't have the luxury of variation for your expediency
you need to change the law, and for that you need to lobby politically; the hic is the blunt instrument of application of existing statutes and not some agent of change
if you want to hear my sad story of vr application again, i will do so, but the salient point was that acceptance of my interpretation of law required the leverage of a silk in the federal court
Perhaps the situation is analogous to the faxed scripts, except this time there is no requirement for the document to be printed on a particular type of paper. One might even argue that documents in GPs' computer systems exist on virtual paper.
the situation is not analagous to anything; the requirement is no back dating of referrals - if you can't make a satisfactory referral prior to the specialist consult, it ISN'T a referred consult
i too think the setup they have demanded is stupid and pointless, but let's not go there - we could start on "authority" scripts next
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