NHS patients 'to choose own consultants'
Monday 17th October 2011
NHS providers will have to accept all clinically appropriate referrals made by clinicians to named hospital consultant-led teams.
This means that NHS patients in England will have the freedom to choose where they are treated as well as who provides their hospital care as part of the government's plan to improve patient choice.
The scheme, which will begin in April 2012, also means that NHS providers will have to publish information about their consultants and the services they provide.
This move is intended to ensure greater transparency in the NHS and enable patients to make more informed choices about their care.
They could choose the consultant-led team they believe to be the most experienced in a particular condition, while others could opt for the same doctor that treated them in the past.
A "Liberating the NHS" consultation helped to shape the changes being made to the NHS, with an emphasis on localised care, cutting red tape and patient choice.
Written by Angela Newbury
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