Is this going to achieve anything other than dumping more responsibility on GP?

“Under the new plans, patients will be able to get direct referrals for tests and scans for a range of ear, nose and throat, gynaecological, urological, bowel and lung conditions – without seeing a consultant first”

There are few “tests and scans” that I can’t already request and would be in a position to action the result. Slightly less restrictive vetting of MSK MRIs would be nice, but in many ways it helps in persuading patients these don’t change management for many presentations.

I may be cynical, but rather than reducing referrals, it seems more likely that we will be left holding risk for patients who do actually need referral for longer, only potentially with some findings on specialist investigations that are not actionable in primary care. Fast track pathways where direct to test is appropriate is largely already in place in my ICB.

Not sure if anyone can alleviate my cynicism here and has seen anything details yet, but I couldn’t find anything elsewhere. It seems like a watered down version of that terrible policy idea a year or two ago of allowing patients to self refer into secondary care.