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Patient choice

  • Last modified date:
    8 February 2007
Information about projects on increasing patients' choice of hospital for their elective care.

Question

In relation to patient choice, please send project copies of:

  • the project mandate
  • the project brief
  • the PID - project initiation document
  • the project plan(s) including exception/revised plans
  • the business case
  • the risk log
  • the change log
  • reports to the project board/steering group since formation.

Response

The Government's commitment to increasing patients' choice of hospital for their elective care is being delivered through a number of projects.

* Choice at six months - since last August, patients who will wait more than six months for their elective care are being offered the choice of an alternative provider for faster treatment.* Choice at referral - from December 2005, patients needing a referral for elective care will be able to choose from 4-5 providers for their treatment. Delivery of choice at referral is being supported by a new service - Choose and Book. * Free choice - by 2008, patients will have the right to choose from any health care provider which meets the Healthcare Commission's standards and which can provide the care within the price that the NHS will pay.

A keynote speech by the Prime Minister to the Labour Party on 23rd January 2003 provided the mandate for the choice at six months project. The mandate for the choice at referral project was included in a speech made by Alan Milburn, then the Secretary of State for Health, on 11th February 2003. A transcript of this speech is held in the archive of Alan Milburn's speeches on the Department of Health's website. The NHS Improvement Plan, published in June 2004, set out the mandate for the free choice project, this publication can also be found on the Department's website.

Some of the information you request relating to the individual projects is not available.

A copy of the information you requested for the choice at six months project is attached.

Delivery of choice at referral is being supported by a new service, Choose and Book. Information relating to the Choose and Book project is available on the Choose and Book website. This includes a delivery framework for local health communities. Summaries of the proceedings of the Choose and Book Joint Project Board are also available on the NHS Connecting for Health website.

The policy for choice at referral is still being developed and therefore some of the information you requested is being withheld as its falls under the exemption in section 35 of the Freedom of Information Act. In applying this exemption, we have had to balance the public interest in withholding the information against the public interest in disclosing the information. The attached annex sets out the exemption in full.

The policy for free choice from 2008 is still being formulated. Therefore, the project information you requested relating to free choice is being withheld as its falls under the exemption in section 35 of the Freedom of Information Act. In applying this exemption we have had to balance the public interest in withholding the information against the public interest in disclosing the information. The attached annex sets out the exemption in full.

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