The Royal Free London is introducing a new referral assessment service (RAS) for adult and paediatric ear, nose and throat (ENT) services.

Urgent referrals remain unchanged and should not be submitted via RAS.

All non-urgent referrals will be triaged before the patient is seen in clinic. Clinicians will review, redirect or return referrals with advice for primary care management.

Each specialty will provide a single RAS point of access for all sites, guiding booking staff to ensure patients receive the most appropriate appointment.

When submitting a referral, please ensure you:

• attach all relevant clinical information and documents. Referrals will not be processed without documents. 
• include patient preferences for hospital sites to support patient choice.
• continue safety-netting while awaiting triage.

The change for ENT paediatric services was on 23 June 2026. 

The change for ENT adult services will be implemented on 30 June 2026.

For referral escalations, please contact the ENT admin team: RF-TR.RF-ENTADMIN@nhs.net.