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News items on 'Patient Choice'
(Telegraph 17/09/2009)
Andy Burnham is the latest of a succession of health secretaries to offer the British public increased choice: this time of general practitioner. Those of us in the medical profession who recall the fiasco of the choose-and-book system, introduced without any preparation and even less thought a few years ago, and those of us who live in areas where there is a natural monopoly of general practice, might be excused a hollow laugh.
Final say
(BBC 22/07/2009)
In days gone by, there was a perception that doctors knew best and had the final say - but things have changed and patients are increasingly instrumental in decisions about their care. However, Dr James Armstrong, a medico-legal advisor for the MDU, says doctors sometimes still have to say no. However, patients may not recognise that there are some circumstances when their doctors may feel obliged to say no to a request for treatment..
Hospitals 'may say no to top-ups'
(BBC 09/03/2009)
Leading hospitals in England say they may be forced to refuse patients who want to top up their care because they fear they could be breaching NHS rules. Elite hospitals with foundation trust status have a cap on the number of patients they can treat privately. And NHS managers have warned that unless the limit is scrapped they will have to send top-up patients elsewhere.
EU health right 'inequality risk'
(BBC 24/02/2009)
The right to access healthcare across Europe could worsen health inequalities if patients are not given the right advice and support, peers say. The European Commission has put forward proposals to make it easier for EU patients to go abroad for treatment. But the House of Lords' EU Committee said the rich and educated would be advantaged unless fair funding and information systems were in place.
(eHealthInsider 23/01/2009)
Choose and Book has reduced healthcare to a factory production line that is detrimental to patient care, the president of the Royal College of Surgeons has claimed. Writing a viewpoint for the BBC website, John Black argued that direct professional relationships between GPs and local hospital doctors were vital and that they enabled GPs to select the right consultant for each patient.
Hospital care
(BBC 21/01/2009)
NHS patients can now choose where to have an operation and targets say how quickly procedures and tests should be carried out. But in this week's Scrubbing Up health column, John Black, president of the Royal College of Surgeons, says the doctor-patient relationship has been damaged and argues that a single consultant should once again oversee a patient's care.
(eHealthInsider 03/12/2008)
The percentage of people who recall being offered a choice of hospital remains at just one under in two patients, according to the latest National Choice Survey.
Patients going 'private' on NHS
(BBC 02/12/2008)
Patients have the right to opt for any NHS hospital or private unit that can offer the care at NHS cost. In little over 12 months, the number opting for private hospitals has risen 10-fold to over 3,500 a month. Doctors said patients needed to think carefully as vital NHS money was being lost to private health providers. The government launched Patient Choice at the start of 2006.
(BBC 16/10/2008)
The Healthcare Commission has published its in-depth analysis of the performance of England's 391 NHS trusts across a range of categories over the past year. The watchdog assessed the trusts on a series of criteria, focusing on their quality of service and use of resources. The ratings reflect how well the organisation met basic standards of care and how they performed against national targets.
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