Digital sleep clinic

More than CBT-I: specialist sleep care in the community

The Sleepstation Clinic extends beyond insomnia treatment, providing consultant-led care for insomnia and other common sleep disorders. Delivered in partnership with Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, it offers rapid access to specialist assessment, management advice and treatment options in the community.

The clinic provides:

• Consultant-led assessment and diagnosis for insomnia and other common sleep disorders
• Multi-disciplinary input and clinical oversight for more complex presentations
• Personalised management recommendations based on sleep, symptom and health information
• Access to Sleepstation CBTi where digital CBT-I is clinically appropriate
• Clear advice for patients and referring clinicians, including recommendations for further investigation or onward referral where needed.

This page sets out information for ICBs, GP practices and referrers about the clinic service, referral route for clinical assessments, patient choice position and charges for non-contracted activity.

Digital sleep clinic: scope and referrals

Speciality clinic types:

• Insomnia
• Parasomnia and other sleep disorders

The Sleepstation Clinic provides remote specialist assessment for adults with suspected sleep disorders. The consultation focuses on structured sleep assessment, diagnosis where appropriate, triage, and treatment planning.

Diagnostic testing, including sleep studies, is not currently provided directly by this service but may be recommended or arranged through other appropriate pathways where clinically indicated.

Treatment offered for:

• Insomnia
• Insomnia Disorder
• Circadian rhythm disorders
• Parasomnias

The service is for clinically appropriate adults requiring assessment and support for sleep problems. Where a patient’s needs fall outside the scope of the service, Sleepstation will advise the patient and/or referrer as appropriate. The service scope includes:

• Screening for sleep problems
• Clinical assessment and diagnosis, where relevant
• Consultant oversight, and escalation where required
• Advice and reporting back to the referrer
• Access to insomnia support, including Sleepstation CBTi, where clinically appropriate.

How to refer

Unless a local contract permits otherwise, referrals should be made by the patient’s GP via the NHS e-Referral Service (eRS).

To refer:

1. Search for the relevant Sleepstation Digital Sleep Clinic service on eRS
2. Select the appropriate clinic type:
   • Insomnia
   • Parasomnia and other sleep disorders
3. Submit the referral with relevant clinical information
4. Sleepstation will triage the referral and invite the patient to begin the online assessment process

The patient will then be managed through the consultant-led digital sleep clinic pathway.

Sleepstation does not provide an urgent, emergency or crisis service.

Please contact info@sleepstation.org.uk for enquiries about the service and patient eligibility.

Sleep medicine training

Sleepstation also provides free educational webinars for NHS referrers. Sessions are delivered online and are available at no cost to practices or organisations with at least five attendees.

The training provides a practical introduction to recognising common sleep problems in primary care and understanding the range of support options available.

Programme outline:

• What sleep is and why it matters
• Taking a brief sleep history
• Understanding common sleep problems and support options
• Pharmacological treatments for insomnia
• Non-pharmacological treatments for insomnia, including CBTi

To register your team, email training@sleepstation.org.uk

Patient choice and the NHS Choice Framework

The NHS Choice Framework explains the choices available to patients in England and the information that should be provided to support those choices.

The framework states that patients have the right to make choices about NHS services commissioned by NHS bodies and to receive information to support those choices.

The framework also explains that these choices apply at the point of referral and apply to both physical and mental health services.

Sleepstation provides information so that patients, referrers and ICBs can understand when Sleepstation may be available as a choice for clinically appropriate referrals.

Our consultant-led digital sleep clinic is in scope of the right to patient choice where:

• the patient is an adult NHS patient in England;
• the referral is made by a GP;
• the patient is exercising their right to choice;
• the referral is clinically appropriate;
• the patient requires assessment and support for sleep problems within the scope of the service.

Where these conditions are met, Sleepstation will accept the referral as non-contracted activity.

ICBs remain responsible for ensuring that patients can exercise their rights to choice and for providing information on the choices available to patients.

Patients are sometimes told that there is no sleep support available in their area, even where referral under the NHS Choice Framework may be possible. We want to make the position as clear as possible for patients, GPs and ICBs and to make that route understandable, transparent and straightforward to administer.

Charges

The charge is £233 per accepted referral where the referral is managed as a single-professional first attendance assessment episode.

Where the referral requires multi-professional input, the applicable charge is £311 per accepted referral.

These prices are based on the relevant NHS Payment Scheme outpatient first attendance unit price for the applicable contract year, using:

• TFC 300 General Internal Medicine Service
• WF01B First Attendance, Single Professional
• WF02B First Attendance, Multi Professional

Invoices are raised to the responsible commissioner for accepted referrals made under patient choice / non-contracted activity arrangements.

Email contracts@sleepstation.org.uk for ICB contract verification, patient choice, payment or invoice queries,