Realising Clinical and Financial Value Through Digitally Enabled Referral and Appointment Management
The NHS faces urgent pressures to recover elective care performance, enhance patient engagement, and operate efficiently within stringent financial constraints. Aligned with NHS England’s 2025/26 capital funding programme, this whitepaper written by clinical and digital health experts outlines assumptions, evidence-based expected outcomes, and the financial and clinical impacts achievable through digitally transforming referral and appointment management using the NHS App, Patient Engagement Portals (PEPs), and the NHS e-Referral Service (e-RS).
This is where Swiftqueue our proven Patient Engagement solution steps in.
It is already being used by over 70 NHS Trusts and Health Boards across the UK.
Swiftqueue directly supports the goals of the 2025/26 capital funding programme by offering:
- Full NHS App integration – empowering patients with real-time appointment access and control
- Seamless e-RS compatibility – enabling smooth referral workflows and reducing administrative load
- Scaleable engagement tools – improving communication, boosting attendance, and reducing no-shows
- Elective recovery support – including intelligent scheduling, e-waiting list validation, and auto re-booking
- System-wide benefits – from shorter waiting lists to optimised clinic performance
How this could benefit your organisation
Digitally transforming appointments and referrals delivers clinically meaningful and financially compelling outcomes—faster triage, fewer DNAs, empowered patients, and cost savings. Backed by official NHS benefits, societal pilots, and academic evidence, Trusts now have a strong case to bid for capital funding. Trusts should use this evidence to shape a capital funding bid, leveraging existing PEPs and integrating e-RS APIs to meet March 2026 targets and unlock elective capacity gains.
Explore:
- Evidence based clinical, financial and operational expected outcomes
- Swiftqueue UK case studies
- A framework for continuous improvement