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Acute liver inpatient referrals

Our Liver Urgent Referral System is for inter-hospital and intra-hospital use only. To access it, you must use Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) on a PC connected to an NHS hospital network.

GPs wishing to make urgent/emergency liver referrals should send patients to their local Emergency Department for assessment. If you require more general advice you may want to discuss the case with the Liver registrar on call via switchboard (020 3299 9000).

How to make an urgent referral: online only

  1. Refer the patient using the Liver Urgent Referral System.
  2. Follow this up by calling the appropriate Liver registrar on-call via switchboard (020 3299 9000). Available registrars are:
    – weekday working hours: Liver Intensive Therapy Unit (ITU), Post Transplant, General Hepatology, and Transplant Surgical team.
    – weekend and out-of-hours: Liver ITU, Liver GI bleeds (also covering Post Transplant and General Hepatology), and Transplant Surgical team.
  3. Send imaging electronically to King’s College Hospital.

Emergency referrals

A referral changes from urgent to emergency if the patient’s condition is immediately life-threatening. If your patient is already in a Level 2 or 3 bed, or there are concerns regarding high grade encephalopathy or variceal bleeding with haemodynamic instability, call switchboard on 020 3299 9000 and ask for the Liver ITU team. Most paracetamol overdoses are also discussed directly with Liver ITU.

Using the Liver Urgent Referral System

User guide and support
Go to the Liver Urgent Referral System.
Request a login
You can request a login if you need to make inter-hospital urgent liver referrals to King’s and you have an nhs.net email account. If you need to set up an nhs.net email account, visit www.nhs.net.
Issues with password registration
Email [email protected] or call 020 3299 7564.

Routine liver referrals

Contact the relevant service directly: