Patients 'not getting choice of hospital'-choose and book

Fewer than half of NHS patients are being granted new rights to more choice over where they have operations, more than a year after the policy was introduced. A Government survey found that four out of 10 people referred to hospitals by GPs recalled being offered a choice of where to have their treatment. Since Jan 1 last year, all NHS patients referred for most non-emergency treatments should be offered a choice of at least four hospitals.

Last week it was revealed 38 per cent of first hospital referral appointments made by GPs were made through "Choose and Book" - a £64 million online system for which ministers set a target of dealing with 90 per cent of appointments by the end of March.

However, the National Patient Choice survey of 57,000 patients found that only 41 per cent referred to hospitals by GPs could recall being offered a choice. Of those, 28 per cent were offered a copy of Choosing your Hospital, the Government guide giving patients information on how to make their choice. Most - 59 per cent - gave location or transport considerations as the most important factor.

GPs have complained that they do not have enough information about private healthcare providers and hospitals outside their region to be able to help patients make meaningful choices.

A British Medical Association spokesman said: "They are spending an awful lot of money on things like new websites when patients would rather the resources were used to make sure their local hospital was of a good standard, clean and offers the right quality of care."

From:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/04/10/nhosi10.xml

The NHS has missed by a long way a much-revised target to get first out-patient appointments made online through the so-called "choose and book" system.

Originally, all 9m or so first out-patient appointments a year were meant to be made through "choose and book" by December 2005.

That target has been revised repeatedly: at the end of last week it was for 90 per cent of referrals to be made that way. In practice just 38 per cent went through the system in the last week of March, according to Connecting for Health, with referrals running at an annual rate of about 3.3m.

From:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/4efcea1a-e312-11db-a1c9-000b5df10621.html

On January 02, 2006 Health Direct commented on the latest labour NHS promise that it had broken in Choose and Book- your new right for NHS treatment according to labour's promises

Most patients in England gain a historic new right this week - to be treated in a private hospital at National Health Service expense. The arrival of "patient choice" - the right to choose, initially from at least four hospitals, and by 2008 from any hospital prepared to meet NHS standards and prices - is a symbolic moment in the Labour government's endeavour to use market forces to drive up health service performance.

Though quite how this policy will actually work in practise- with the introduction of the Choose and Book IT disaster- which it is currently hoped that it will be delivered 12 months late in December 2006, is anyone's guess.

A survey of more than 1,000 adults conducted for Nuffield Hospitals shows four out of five do not know that patient choice is arriving next week.

It equally shows that 60 per cent, given the choice, would opt for a private hospital, with only 18 per cent positively choosing an NHS hospital and 22 per cent saying they do not know.