'Free choice' - allowing patients being referred for non-urgent treatment to choose a hospital anywhere in England - begins in the NHS in England in April 2008. It is another milestone in a policy that aims, among other things, to use consumer pressure to improve the quality of hospital services ...
For the past three years patients referred by their GP for a specialist outpatient consultation have had a choice over where to be treated. As part of a larger research project, a survey was sent to patients in four case study areas of England to ask them about their experience ...
Since the Labour government came to power in 1997, waiting lists have attracted unprecedented attention. For a time, the number of patients recorded as waiting for hospital treatment fell, but at the same time, numbers waiting more than 13 weeks for an outpatient appointment rose. This outcome had been anticipated ...