West Hampshire fibroscan service
Pathway
Fibroscan Service – South West Hampshire Patients Only (UHS facing)
General Information
Solent Medical Services (SMS) provides a Community Fibroscan service ONLY for Southampton facing practices (this is because any onward referrals will only be made to UHS).
The Fibroscan Service offers primary care direct access to diagnostic and specialist management advice in the Community to promote earlier detection of liver disease, provide targeted brief intervention to patients, increase knowledge of liver disease in primary care and reduce routine referrals into acute Hepatology services.
The phase two pathway will be further developed for patients who would be referred to UHD or SFT.
Inclusion Criteria
- Patient is 18 years old or over
- ELF test score > 9.5
- Negative NILS (non-invasive liver screen) – normal results for Autoantibodies, Immunoglobulins, Hepatitis screen, Ferritin – these results MUST be included in the referral
Exclusion Criteria
- Patients with treatable causes for liver disease, those that have a positive Non-invasive liver screen (NILS)
- Referrals that do not include NILS and ELF results will be rejected back to primary care.
- Patients should not have any red flags and should not require urgent onward referral to Hepatology
The Fibroscan Pathway
Within the pathway all patients will have:
- The appointment will start with some investigative questions.
- The clinician within SMS will carry out the Fibroscan
- They will review and interpret the results
- The clinician will discuss the results and will include targeted brief lifestyle intervention conversation with the patient
- If the results of the scan show evidence of advanced liver fibrosis, SMS will refer the patient directly onto UHS Hepatology.
- If there is no evidence of advanced liver fibrosis, the patient will be discharged back to Primary Care with management advice and signposting to support services as appropriate. As per the Primary care liver pathway, if the risk factors for liver disease persist the recommendation is for a further liver fibrosis assessment in 3 years.
- In all cases, the detail of the appointment including the scan results and outcomes will be sent to Primary Care and the patient by letter so the patient record can be updated.
Process
How to make a referral
Direct referral via eRS service found under specialty ‘community healthcare,’ clinic type ‘prevention and screening.’ SMS Community FibroScan Service
What the Patient can expect
The patient will receive an appointment for a Fibroscan within 8 weeks of referral and the results will be discussed with them on the day of the scan. The patient will receive targeted brief lifestyle intervention conversation
The patient will then either be referred onto UHS Hepatology Department or discharged back to Primary Care.
If you have any questions regarding the service, please contact:
- Solent Medical Services: Wendy Bailey (Operations Manager): SouthamptonCommunity.FibroscanService@nhs.net or by phone to 02380 296056
- Robbie McLaren (Commissioning Manager) – Southwest Area Team, Hampshire, Southampton and isle of Wight CCG: robbie.mclaren@nhs.net
