Important: New Release Naming Convention
We're aligning with Access HSC product standards for release naming.
New Format: YY.MM.ES:
YY = Year
MM = Month of release
ES = Elemental Software
Examples: - 25.12.ES = December 2025 Elemental Software release:
26.01.ES = January 2026 Elemental Software release
26.02.ES = February 2026 Elemental Software release
This format aligns with other Access HSC products (Rio EPR, Patient Flow Manager) and makes it easier to track deployment timelines across the product family.
About Access Elemental
New in 2025: Access Elemental has expanded to include three core modules. We've added this overview to help you understand which module each feature in this release applies to.
Community Referrals (COMR) – Rio integration module for GP-to-trust secondary care referrals via EMIS Web.
Social Prescribing (SOP) – Cloud-based platform for link workers managing non-clinical community referrals and wellbeing services.
Patient Engagement Portal (PEG) – Rio integration module providing patients with self-service access to trust services and appointments.
Platform-Wide Enhancements
We're excited to introduce powerful new features that enhance clinical integration monitoring, referral management, and data quality across the Access Elemental Platform.
Clinical Health Dashboard for GP Practice Monitoring
How To Guide: Clinical Health Dashboard.
Modules: Community Referrals & Social Prescribing
Clinical System: EMIS only
Healthcare organisations using Access Elemental now have centralised visibility into the health status of their EMIS clinical system integrations across multiple GP practices.
Key Highlights:
Read-only dashboard: View-only interface showing the health of your clinical integrations at a glance
Service heartbeat tracking: Monitor when each practice's integration service last communicated with the platform
File-back operation visibility: Track successful and unsuccessful data exchanges with timestamps
Service version information: See which version of the integration service each practice is running
Visual status indicators: Colour-coded badges instantly show which practices have issues requiring attention
Establishment count: Dashboard header displays total number of GP practices being monitored
Navigation:
Administration
HCE Manager
HCE Dashboard
Who can access this: Users with HCE Manager role permissions.
Business Value:
This read-only dashboard enables healthcare organisations to proactively identify and resolve integration issues before they impact referral workflows, reducing support burden and improving management of GP practice networks.
Enhanced EMIS Fileback Service:
We've enhanced our EMIS fileback service to improve reliability and prevent filebacks from stalling. We're planning to roll this out to projects in the new year. If you're interested in this enhancement, please let your Customer Success Manager know.
Service Restriction by GP Practice
How to Guide: Service Restriction by GP Practice.
Module: Community Referrals
HCE Admins can now control which services are available for referral from specific GP practices, ensuring GP staff only see relevant service options when creating referrals through their clinical systems.
Key Highlights:
Granular service control: Enable or disable specific services per GP practice using simple checkboxes
Reduces inappropriate referrals: GPs only see service options relevant to their patient population
Organised by referral handler: Services grouped by Rio Admin for easy management
Supports all service types: Configure clinical services, regional services, administrative hubs, and triage services
Immediate application: Changes apply immediately to referrals made from clinical systems
Navigation:
Administration then HCE Manager
HCE Admin, Select Establishment
Rio Referral Setting tab
Who can access this: Users with HCE Admin role permissions
Business Value:
Minimises cognitive load on referring GPs, reduces inappropriate referrals requiring manual triage, and provides Trust administrators with granular control over referral pathways. Supports phased rollout of new services to specific GP practices.
⚠️Important: This functionality is specifically for the GP Referral product within Community Referrals. Please note that Social Prescribing already has existing functionality within Elemental Core to support incoming referral restrictions, called Incoming Referral Restrictions. This new feature is not part of Social Prescribing.
Enable Editing of Submitted Referrals
Module: Community Referrals
Referrals are now view-only once submitted to Rio, maintaining data integrity between EMIS, Elemental, and Rio systems.
Key Highlights:
Prevents post-submission edits: GPs cannot modify referrals after Trust has actioned them
Status-based controls: Referral editing permissions automatically controlled by referral status
Accepted referrals: Status updated to "Accepted" in Elemental, no editing allowed
Rejected referrals: Status updated to "Rejected" in Elemental, no editing allowed
Data integrity: Maintains consistency across EMIS, Elemental, and Rio systems
Who this affects: GP practices using Rio integration for referrals
Business Value:
Eliminates confusion and data integrity issues caused by GPs editing referrals after Trusts have already processed them. Ensures all systems remain synchronised with accurate referral information.
⚠️Important: This functionality is specifically for the GP Referral product within Community Referrals. This new feature is not part of Social Prescribing.
Referral Quota Management
How To Guide: Referral Quota Management.
Module: Social Prescribing
Organisations can now configure yearly referral quotas for GP practices, enabling better resource planning and compliance monitoring.
Key Highlights:
Yearly quota configuration: Set allocation numbers per GP practice
Flexible quota year: Define quota year start date (e.g., July 1st) to align with organisational cycles
Automatic population: GP practices automatically populated from licence
Audit trail: Display of quota breaches for monitoring and reporting
Automatic reset: Quota year automatically resets at configured date
Dedicated permissions: New HCE Manager role for quota management access
Navigation:
Administration
HCE Manager
Referral Quota Management
Who can access this: Users with HCE Manager role permissions for quota management
Business Value:
Enables systematic monitoring of referral volumes, supports resource planning, and provides visibility into GP practice referral patterns for organisational management.
Week Number Filter within Find Case
How To Guide: Week number Visit Field.
Module: Social Prescribing
Configuration Required: License preference (contact Support to enable)
A new filter + case note field has been added to the Client's Case screen to help organisations track outcomes based on week numbers, showing at what stage of the client journey health and wellbeing metrics were captured.
Key Highlights:
Journey stage tracking: Filter cases by week number to track at what point in the journey metrics were recorded
Reporting support: Helps with reporting outcomes based on client journey stages
Data quality oversight: Quickly identify cases missing week number data
Simple filter: One-click access to cases with no week number entered
Configuration: This feature requires a licence preference to be enabled. Please contact Support via the Customer Success Portal to switch this on for your organisation.
Navigation: Find Case screen.
Business Value:
Supports outcome reporting by enabling organisations to track when health and wellbeing metrics were captured during the client journey, improving the quality of programme evaluation and commissioner reporting.
Update Referral Service Selection Page - EMIS
Module: Social Prescribing + Community Referrals
Type: UI Update
The referral service selection page for EMIS has been updated with clearer descriptions to help referrers choose between Elemental Referrals and Rio Referrals. (If you are a customer who uses both Products the screen will have two options)
Updated Descriptions:
Elemental Referrals – For referring clients to social prescribing services, health and wellbeing coaching, community support programmes, voluntary sector organisations, and preventative care interventions delivered by link workers and community service providers.
Rio Referrals – For referring clients to secondary care services, including mental health trusts and clinical pathways requiring assessment and treatment by healthcare professionals within NHS trust organisations.
Who this affects: GP practices and referrers using EMIS for both Social Prescribing and Rio Secondary Care referrals
Business Value:
Reduces referral routing errors by providing clear guidance on which referral pathway to use, improving efficiency, and ensuring patients reach the appropriate services faster.
How to Access New Features
For HCE Managers:
Navigate to Administration, then HCE Manager
Access HCE Dashboard for the Clinical Health Dashboard
Access Referral Quota Management for quota configuration
For HCE Admins:
Navigate to Administration, then HCE Manager, click on HCE Admin
Select an establishment
Click the Rio Referral Setting tab to configure service restrictions
For Link Workers and Case Managers:
Week Number Filter available in the Find Case screen (requires licence preference - contact Support to enable)
Updated EMIS Referral Service Selection page appears when creating referrals
Configuration Notes
Role Permissions Required:
HCE Manager Role: Required for Clinical Health Dashboard and Referral Quota Management
HCE Admin Role: Required for Service Restriction configuration
Licence Preferences Required:
Week Number Filter: Contact Support via the Customer Success Portal to enable this feature for your organisation
Support
For questions about enabling these features, configuring permissions, or requesting licence preference changes, please contact Support via the Customer Success Portal.
Document Date: 25 November 2025
Release Version: 25.12.ES (December 2025 Elemental Software)
Platform: Access Elemental - HSC Patient and Prevention
📌Note: This release follows our new naming convention where releases are named by the month of deployment (MM.YY.ES format).