NHS England will release up to £55 million in funding to clinical commissioning groups to reward general practitioners and hospitals for using its e-referral system. About half of patients are currently referred for hospital appointments using the service, which was implemented in June 2015. The Health and Social Care Information Centre is upgrading the system, and has set a target of a 60 percent e-referral rate by September 2016 and 100 percent by 2018. In addition to providing a more efficient system, e-referral services aim to give patients as much information about a hospital as possible, as well as the ability to select the hospital appointment day, provider, and location.