Refer a patient to the Endocrinology department

All outpatient referrals should be sent to our administrative team via gos-tr.referrals@nhs.net. We only accept NHS referrals from outside GOSH for children and young people who meet the following criteria:

• Age less than 16 years (however we may suggest that patients over 13 years of age be referred to the adolescent endocrinology service at University College London Hospital)
• Secondary care referrals must be accompanied by a letter from their named local NHS consultant paediatrician who will continue to manage the child or young person on a shared care basis. The patient must not be discharged from the care of this doctor.
• GP referrals will only be accepted if it is a request for:
  • A second opinion for a child under the care of another paediatric endocrinology team. We require an accompanying letter from a tertiary paediatric endocrinology team for this second opinion.
  • An opinion on a sibling of a child already under our care, where there is suspicion of them having the same condition.
  • All other GP referrals should be directed in the first instance to the local paediatric team. If this is within the WC1 area the nearest hospital with general paediatric services is University College London Hospital (UCLH).
• The child or young person must be entitled to free NHS care based on current government guidelines.

To improve the patient experience, on occasion we will ask for certain information and investigations to be initiated prior to accepting the referral (for example, short stature or failure to thrive screen, at least two height measurements and parental heights).

We will NOT accept referrals for the following:

• Patients more than 16 years of age
• Autoimmune hypothyroidism
• Familial short stature
• Diabetes mellitus - patients with childhood diabetes mellitus should be referred to the UCLH diabetes team in the first instance
• Nutritional vitamin D deficiency
• Childhood obesity with an absence of a hormonal cause and onset more than five years of age - children and young people aged two to 18 years who have health conditions caused by weight gain including type two diabetes or sleep apnoea should be referred to their regional Complications of Excess Weight (CEWS) clinic. Visit the GOSH CEWS clinic page for more information.

All outpatient referrals from within GOSH will be triaged on a case-by-case basis. An outpatient referral order should be requested on Epic. Please note that the exclusion criteria above still applies.

All inpatient referrals should be discussed with the Paediatric Endocrinology Registrar covering Internal Consults who is contactable via the GOSH Switchboard (0207 405 9200). An inpatient referral order should be concurrently requested on Epic.

Calls for advice from outside GOSH and requests for interhospital transfers are taken by the Paediatric Endocrinology Registrar covering External Consults between 11am and 5pm, Monday to Friday who is contactable via the GOSH Switchboard (0207 405 9200). Prior to 11am only urgent, consultant-to-consultant calls will be taken.

Outside of normal working hours all calls from outside GOSH are taken by the on-call registrar.