What it means
Triage is the sorting of patients by clinical urgency, so that the sickest are seen first. From the French trier, to sort.
It is explicitly not first-come, first-served. Someone arriving after you and being seen before you is triage working correctly — not queue-jumping, and not a failure of the system.
In emergency departments patients are assigned a category from immediate to non-urgent. In general practice, triage decides who needs today, who needs this week, and who needs a different service altogether.
In practice
NHS 111 is a triage service. Online consultation forms perform a form of triage before a clinician is involved.
Referral letters are triaged by specialists, which determines whether an appointment is urgent, routine, or converted to advice.
Why it matters
Triage depends entirely on the information given. Describing symptoms accurately — particularly chest pain, breathlessness, weakness, confusion or a rash that does not fade under pressure — is what allows the system to categorise correctly.
Symptoms worsening while waiting is a reason to tell someone immediately, because triage categories can and should be revised.
Our own booking asks screening questions for exactly this reason: some presentations are not safe to manage by video, and it is better to say so before an appointment than during one.
Clinically reviewed by Dr Mohammad Zubair Khan, GMC 7563469
Last reviewed
August 30, 2026