How to make patient referrals to TAS
Trusts with a service level agreement with TAS
Urgent referrals should be made by phone
Phone the 24 hour referral line on 0300 020 0496 and select the option (for example, press 2 for Bristol, 3 for London) for the unit you wish to make the referral to. Calls for urgent referrals will be triaged by the Therapeutic Apheresis Services (TAS) nurse, who will initiate plans to treat and inform the covering Consultant, who will contact you if necessary.
Alternatively, if you want to contact a TAS Consultant directly during working hours, go to the units page for contact details. Outside working hours, phone your Hospital Services department and ask to be transferred to the on-call Consultant.
You should be contacted regarding urgent referrals within 30 minutes and non-urgent referrals by the next working day. If you have not been contacted about within these time frames please call back on 0300 020 0496.
You will also need to complete a referral form.
Urgent and non urgent referrals need to use a referral form
If your Trust has a service level agreement with TAS, you can refer a patient by emailing the relevant referral form below to your TAS unit:
Request for therapeutic apheresis
Request for therapeutic plasma exchange
Request for Extracorporeal Photopheresis (ECP) for GvHD
Request for Extracorporeal Photopheresis (ECP) for CTCL
Request for stem cell collection referral
Trusts without a service level agreement
Please contact your TAS unit to discuss your request and then send a one-off agreement request form (Word 68KB) to the unit.
Venous access for apheresis
Patients referred for apheresis procedures will require good venous access to support the blood flow to and from the apheresis equipment. Peripheral veins can be used where suitable however where peripheral veins cannot or are unlikely to be able to support the blood flow rates required by the equipment during the procedure (or course of procedures) then central venous access will be required.
Decision making tool for type and size of central vascular access device for apheresis procedures
Further information
More about TAS services