Wessex LMCs responds to HSSIB interim report on Advice and Guidance.
19 August 2026.
Responding to the publication of the Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB) interim report into Advice and Guidance (A&G) services, Wessex Local Medical Committees (LMCs) said:
The HSSIB report identifies patient safety concerns associated with the implementation of Advice and Guidance and Single Point of Access pathways, including delays to diagnosis, unclear clinical responsibilities and failures in pathway design. The harms identified included delayed cancer diagnosis. It also describes examples where Advice and Guidance operated as a compulsory gateway to specialist assessment and where local pathway design challenged a GP’s ability to refer. HSSIB was unable to determine the full extent of the risk because patient safety incidents in general practice cannot currently be reliably identified in national data, and found that providers engaged during the investigation could not provide evidence that required digital safety checks for the electronic referral system had been completed.
In March 2026, Wessex LMCs called for the clinical evidence base and patient safety assessment underpinning these changes to be published before implementation. The HSSIB report provides an independent assessment that reflects a number of those concerns.
Dr Edd Rendell, Medical Director, Wessex LMCs, said:
“The HSSIB report should not be read as a criticism of specialist advice itself. Many GPs use Advice and Guidance regularly, and when it works well it can improve communication between clinicians and benefit patients.
The report does, however, raise important questions about how these pathways are being implemented and how their impact is being measured. It is striking that HSSIB could not determine the full scale of the risk because the data to do so is not being captured. It is difficult to assure the safety of a system that is not being measured.
Success cannot be measured by referral numbers alone. What matters is whether patients receive safe, timely and appropriate care.
Advice and Guidance works best as a bridge to expertise, not a gatekeeper to care.
We welcome HSSIB’s recommendation for a rapid evaluation, and its view that patient safety risks should be identified and addressed before further expansion. The evidence should be in the public domain before these pathways expand further, not after.”
Responses from other Originations:
The NHS Alliance responds to HSSIB report on NHS advice and guidance services
rcgp.org.uk/News/RCGP-responds-to-HSSIB-report
Our response to HSSIB’s investigation into Advice and Guidance | The Patients Association
Related news on this topic:
Advice and guidance ‘contributed to patient harm’, NHS safety investigation finds – Pulse Today
Watchdog links advice and guidance to patient deaths | GPonline
NHS patients die after hospital referrals ‘rationed’
GPs’ advice service is causing cancer diagnoses to be missed, inquiry finds | Cancer | The Guardian