Free Choice at the Point of Referral March 31, 2008
Posted by western4uk in Acute Services, Choice, Clinical Governance, Grey Literature, Hospitals, Primary Care, Private Sector, Quality.Tags: Choice, Choose and Book, Grey Literature, Hospitals, Quality, Referral
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Patients will be able to choose where they are treated from any provider meeting Healthcare Commission standards from 1 April, but Free Choice at the Point of Referral a King’s Fund’s briefing on the latest official data finds the policy has some way to go before it is likely to drive improvements in the quality of hospital services.
One of the ambitions of free choice is to create incentives for hospitals to drive up quality standards as they compete for patients, but official data shows that:
- use of ‘Choose and Book’ — the computer system designed to facilitate choice — whilst increasing still falls short of the government’s target, with only 50 per cent of referrals from GP to hospital being made using the system
- although increasing numbers of patients say they remember being offered a choice of hospital by their GP since the policy began in 2006, the proportion is still only 45 per cent
- of those 45 per cent, only 27 per cent said their GP gave them a booklet containing comparative information on hospital performance to help them make a decision.
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