Digital sleep clinic

Sleepstation provides a consultant-led digital sleep clinic for adults with sleep problems, including insomnia disorder and other common sleep disorders.

The service provides screening, clinical assessment and diagnosis, management advice, and where appropriate, access to structured insomnia support, including Sleepstation’s digital Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia programme – Sleepstation CBTi.

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.

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.

Digital sleep clinic: service scope

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.

Sleepstation’s digital sleep clinic is not an urgent, emergency or crisis service.

For patient choice / non-contracted activity referrals, referrals must be made by the patient’s GP. Referrals should be made electronically, via the e-Referral Service (eRS).

Sleepstation will review the referral information and invite the patient to start the online assessment process. The patient will then be managed through the consultant-led digital sleep clinic pathway.

The service scope includes:

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

Charges

The charge is £231 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 £307 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,

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