Care navigation
Find care
This is the directory of care areas and the route into each one. Areas are published individually, with the referral route, the locations that provide them and what to prepare.
Not an emergency service
If someone is seriously unwell, do not use these pages. Read emergency guidance.
Directory
Care areas
Each area is added once the responsible clinical team has confirmed its scope and access route. We publish nothing provisionally: an unlisted area does not mean the care is unavailable, only that the page has not been verified yet.
No care areas are published yet
Rather than list specialties that cannot be verified, the directory stays empty. If you are trying to reach a particular service, send a general enquiry describing what you need in non-medical terms and ask to be directed to the right team.
How access works
From first question to appointment
The steps below describe the general route into planned care. Where a care area works differently, its own page says so.
Work out which service fits
If you already know the care area or the clinician, go straight there. If not, your usual clinician can advise, or you can ask us in plain language what your situation would normally be handled by.
Check whether a referral is needed
Many hospital services need a referral from a general practitioner or another clinician. Where a referral is required, the care area page states who can write one and what it should include.
Send an appointment request
Requests are for being contacted back. This website does not hold appointment slots and cannot confirm a time. Keep your request to contact details and a short, non-medical reason.
Prepare for the visit
Bring identification, any referral or letters, a list of the medicines you take, and the name of anyone supporting you. Ask about anything you need to do beforehand, such as fasting or stopping a medicine, and only follow instructions given to you directly by a clinician.
Know what happens next
Ask at the end of every appointment who is responsible for the next step, when you should expect to hear, and who to contact if you do not. Write the answers down.
General health information
What we will and will not publish
Will publish
- Plain-language explanations of what a service does
- Practical preparation and what to expect on the day
- Who to contact, and how to ask a question
- The date a page was last reviewed, and by which team
Will not publish
- Symptom checkers or anything that suggests a diagnosis
- Promised outcomes, success rates or comparisons
- Unverified accreditations, rankings or quality figures
- Patient stories or reviews without documented consent