TRAK CHANGES – Referrals to Medical Microbiology

St John’s Hospital – 17/06/2025

Western General Hospital - 25/08/25

 

What is happening?

We are undertaking a pilot of TRAK referrals to Medical Microbiology at WGH and SJH only. This is in place of the current clinical microbiology advice telephone service for non-urgent queries. WGH and SJH inpatients should now be referred to Microbiology via Trak (Mon to Fri between 0900 and 1630).

 

The referrer can make a referral via the Clinical Menu >> Make Referral menu item. Please note this does NOT currently apply to other sites; if the pilot is successful, we will issue further communications regarding a wider roll-out in due course.

 

Specialities in scope & referrals available:

Specialty	Referrals available	Sites available	Locations
Medical Microbiology	Medical Microbiology Referral - SJH	St John’s Hospital at Howden	All inpatient wards and the emergency department
	Medical Microbiology Referral - WGH	Western General Hospital	All inpatient wards and the emergency department

NOT in scope:

• All other sites (e.g. RIE, RHCYP, DCN)
• Emergency/Urgent referrals. For these referrals please continue to call using 63373 (option 4 then option 2 for SJH or option 1 for WGH)
• Referrals out of hours (Mon-Fri 1700-0900, weekends or public holidays). For these referrals continue to contact the on-call Medical Microbiologist using:

• 63373 (09:00-16:00)
• Switchboard (16:00-09:00)

• Outpatient referrals
• GP referrals
• Referrals from outside NHS Lothian
• Other infection specialties, e.g. Virology, Infectious Diseases, Infection Prevention and Control

 

To place a referral:

See attached PDF document

 

When is it happening?

The change will come into effect on 17/06/2025

 

Who will it affect? 

All clinical users referring to the above specialties and the receiving teams for the above specialties.