I’m not a betting man but if I was I wouldn’t mind betting that most people would answer this question by replying “no”. Yet it’s something you should know about because this organisation – if it has not dealt with you already – will probably be dealing with you, or one of your loved ones, sometime soon.

BHICS is one of those dreadful acronyms that we seem to get more and more of these days. It stands for Brighton and Hove Integrated Care Services and its function is to handle referrals by GPs and other health professionals – whether it be for something comparatively minor such as to a painful feet or need for a life-saving operation. In former times, your GP would refer you directly to the specialist he/she felt you needed to see – but no more; BHICS is here and doctor will refer you through them. When I first heard of this my thinking was: “oh no, not another level of administration in the health service that we don’t need”. However, I joined the Patients Group which BHICS set up to help them with the running of things. After a few months of attending meetings and seeing BHICS at work, I have come to see that this body is serving a good purpose – the trouble is that the health authorities and medical practitioners are not doing enough to make this purpose understood to their patients.

The fact is that there are so many alternatives available to the patient today that the practitioner cannot be expected to know all that is available and, most important, what is available in the shortest time. The solution is that she/he informs the BHICS team that their patient needs to see someone specialising in whatever the condition is and the BHICS team – which consists of triage doctors with a large back-up staff with banks of computers containing lots of information – get to work to see what’s available in the quickest time to meet the needs of the particular patient. One of the backup staff will contact the patient directly by phone to discuss the alternatives available. However, they often have difficulty making the patient understand the function of BHICS.

I feel that the Health Authority could do more to publicise the work of BHICS especially through the local press and broadcast media. However, if you didn’t know about BHICS, you do know.