How much choice do NHS patients really have?

How much choice do NHS patients really have? Provider choice, personal health budgets and birth budgets mean patients increasingly have a say in their care, but there is still a long way to go

The days of “doctor knows best” when patients had to accept, unquestioningly, the decisions health professionals made for them are long gone. These days, the emphasis is on helping patients make informed decisions. But how much choice do patients really have?

The idea of patient choice has started to gain traction in the past two decades, with the gradual introduction of options relating to place and time of appointments: one notable milestone was the launch in 2006 of the Choose and Book electronic appointment system, which enabled patients to make outpatient appointments by phone or over the internet. This was replaced by the NHS e-referral service in 2015. Reorganisation of the NHS extended patient choice further(pdf), to the extent of giving patients the ability to choose a GP anywhere in the country. Continue reading... The Guardian