Emergency care: If you are experiencing a life-threatening emergency, please continue to call 999 as normal.
Hospital appointments: Patients should continue to attend planned appointments unless contacted directly by their care team.
Non-emergency care: If you need urgent medical advice but it is not a life-threatening emergency, please continue to use NHS 111.
Contacting our services: Some email communications and online services may be affected. If your enquiry is urgent, please contact the relevant service by telephone rather than email where possible.
With Patient Initiated Follow-Up (PIFU), you can request a follow-up appointment if and when you feel you need one!
Patient Initiated Follow-Up, also known as PIFU, allows you to contact us when you feel you need to get help with your condition or if you have a flare up of symptoms.
This means rather than having prearranged or regularly scheduled appointments you can access help when you need it the most.
If PIFU is suitable for you, a healthcare professional will discuss this option with you during an outpatient appointment. If you are happy, they will then put you on a PIFU pathway for an agreed period of time.
The healthcare professional will also advise you on the symptoms to look out for, that would mean you should make an appointment and how to contact the service if you need to.
Following your outpatient appointment, you will receive a PIFU letter detailing the information discussed, either physically via the post or digitally via our Patient Portal. For more information on digital letters, please click here.
PIFU is available for patients with longer-term conditions that can be self-managed or patients who may only need short-term or occasional support before being discharged. For example, following a procedure or surgery.
PIFU puts you in control of when you access care and treatment, meaning you spend less time attending routine appointments, but can still access to support from a hospital specialist when you need it.
This means follow-up appointments can be more convenient and help avoid unnecessary trips to hospital, saving time and money.
PIFU is not a replacement for urgent medical advice. If you require urgent medical advice, contact your GP, NHS 111 or your local walk-in centre. In a medical emergency, go to your local Emergency Department (A&E).
