RIGHT TO CHOOSE – Choice in the NHS

NHS Choice Framework – what choices are available to you in your NHS care – GOV.UK

Once you and your GP have agreed your shortlist of suitable providers, you can view the providers’ details such as waiting times and Care Quality Commission (CQC) ratings through Manage your referral or the online e-Referral Service

This includes independent sector providers who are providing services for the NHS.

If you need help choosing where to go for your first appointment because you have a disability, a mental health condition or any other impairment, talk to the healthcare professional that referred you. They will make sure that your additional needs are considered. See section 10, ‘If you require a reasonable adjustment’, for more information on requesting reasonable adjustments.

 ADHD UK   Right to Choose – ADHD UK

Exercising these choices in practice

These examples are fictional and intended to demonstrate how choices may work in practice in the NHS. They do not refer to real people or situations.

Example: choosing the provider of your care

Richard has been suffering from pain when he moves his knee. He raises this with his GP at his next appointment. They discuss the different options available and decide that Richard should be referred to a consultant for further investigation. Richard’s GP makes sure that Richard is aware of his legal entitlement to choose to receive his treatment from any provider which holds an NHS contract to provide this service, including some independent providers who deliver services for the NHS.

Richard’s GP asks him what factors are important to him in choosing where to go for treatment, then uses the online NHS e-Referral Service to show him the choices available both in the surrounding area and in the city where his daughter lives, as Richard would like her to be able to visit him easily if he requires treatment and will spend recovery time in hospital. His GP talks through the information on each choice, including waiting times for first appointment and location of the hospital and creates a shortlist of options for Richard to take home with him and make a decision.

The GP also tells him about the search tools on the NHS website that can be used to look up information on hospitals and their consultants. The GP Practice gives him log-in details to access the NHS e-Referral Service and book an appointment with his chosen hospital.

Richard uses the NHS website to look up the quality ratings of providers on his shortlist and to see how their consultants perform for the procedure that the GP considers he might need. He also uses the NHS website to see how different providers compare, including how patients themselves view outcomes and details on consultants’ experience. He takes the opportunity to talk to his daughter about choosing a provider based near where she lives. After considering the information available, Richard chooses an option that has both a hospital and a consultant that he likes. He uses his log in details to access the NHS e-Referral Service to select his provider and book his first outpatient appointment.